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deist
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Deist

Deist \De"ist\ (d[=e]"[i^]st), n. [L. deus god: cf. F. d['e]iste. See Deity.] One who believes in the existence of a God, but denies revealed religion; a freethinker.

Note: A deist, as denying a revelation, is opposed to a Christian; as, opposed to the denier of a God, whether atheist or pantheist, a deist is generally denominated theist.
--Latham.

Syn: See Infidel.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
deist

1620s, from French déiste, from Latin deus (see Zeus). Related: Deistic (1795). Also see deism.

Wiktionary
deist

n. (alternative spelling of deist English)

WordNet
deist

n. a person who believes that God created the universe and then abandoned it [syn: freethinker]

Usage examples of "deist".

Claiming to be a Deist, it is probable that he was a very liberal one.

Even under a government which, whilst it infringes the very right of thought and speech, boasts of permitting the liberty of the press, a man is pilloried and imprisoned because he is a deist, and no one raises his voice in the indignation of outraged humanity.

Even Rose-whom January knew to be a deist, without belief in Heaven or Hell-wept, rocking back and forth in a corner of the bedroom with her arms folded across her breast.

What that work has done is to prove to the consistent deist that no objections can be drawn from reason or experience against natural or revealed religion, and, consequently, that the things objected to are not incredible and may be proved by external evidence.

This explains why, for the most part, the deist pamphlets of the time were written either in satirical vein or in an aggressive tone of ridicule.

Newton as professor of mathematics at Cambridge, and who thought there was great deist significance in the identification of gravity.

French deist, who was a deist partly because he had been to England as a young man, and admired its system of government, was Voltaire.

My uncle Handyside, however, always maintained that his neighbour was the most honourable man in business that he knew, and far from being an atheist or even a deist, he had family prayers, and on the occasion of a death in the family, the funeral service was most impressive.

Some say that an Atheist who ponders over the possible existence of a God is better than a Deist who never thinks of the Deity, but I will not venture to decide this point.

How this differs from the doctrine of Deists and open opposers of Christianity, it is difficult to conceive, except that it seems to be rather worse.

Thus it differed widely from the flippancy and frivolity of the Deists of France.

All the Deists were rendered into their language, and some were honored with many translators.

The Deists took particular pains to visit Holland, and were never prouder than when told that their works were read by their friends across the North Sea.

The adversaries of the Deists enjoyed the same privilege, and did not hesitate to improve it.

But the Deists of England gained more favor in Holland than their opponents were able to acquire.