Moralistic Therapeutic Deism

Is God just a nice person who created the world, tells us to be “cool” to people, helps out with some of our problems (but otherwise leaves us alone), lets us do what makes us happy, and then takes us to heaven if we’re good?

The term “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism” arose out of the National Study for Youth and Religion, directed by Christian Smith and Lisa Pearce. It describes a common set of views they discovered as they surveyed youth from 12-18 years of age from various religious and racial backgrounds from 2002-2008. The basic…