The short answer to that is: No. The long answer is: Fuck no. (Sorry, just had to put that Stephen Fry joke in there!) The whole point of the "historical conte

The short answer to that is: No. The long answer is: Fuck no. (Sorry, just had to put that Stephen Fry joke in there!) The whole point of the "historical context" that I, and the post I responded to, referred to is that "deism" served as a sort of "escape hatch" in that you could refer to yourself as a deist and usually avoid being persecuted as an unbeliever/heretic/atheist -- the latter of which I'd wager most of the deists actually were (for all practical purposes) even if the term might not have been invented then. The deists were actually some of the most freethinking (i.e. non-conservative) people of their time. EDIT: Wikipedia actually has a marvellous page on this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism . Incidentally the page also answered my question (for the US, at least): Apparently 0.02% of people in the US identified as deists in a survey conducted in 2001. Quite a few years ago to be sure, but I don't imagine it's grown a lot.