ABSTRACT
In natural theology, God was gradually removed from the world. Beginning in earnest with Descartes, the view of God most widely defended by intellectuals was deism. Many intellectuals began to think that God, like a factory worker in modern times, might be eliminated if we could find some automatic mechanism, such as natural selection, that could do the same job. In William Paley's Natural Theology Paley proceeds to prove the existence of God in a scientific manner. Although not a scientist himself, Paley wants to systematize the religious implications of the work of the great Newton. The anthropic principle of more modern times carries Paley's view to a more cosmic level. In any event, the notion of God as the author of nature, the great engineer and mathematician in the sky, is useless from the viewpoint of traditional religion. Naturalistic theism has no use for institutional churches claiming to have a lock on truth.
