The author of this book Ethan Allen was a deist. Deists believe that God created the universe
and then just set it running as part of his grand plan a plan in which humanity is but an
insignificant player. In this book Allen speaks that everything in the universe is a part of a
complex chain of cause and effect. Allen denies all supernatural occurrences because they don't
belong to this chain of cause and effect. Yet in this book he also expresses a belief in
mankind's free will. He asserts that the universe knows no good or evil but rather is
indifferent to mankind's conceptions of morality. The most interesting passages of the book are
inspired by the discoveries of the 16th-century Italian heretic Giordano Bruno who proposes
that the universe contains myriad worlds perhaps populated by a variety of life forms. Allen
asks why then God would bother to cater specifically to our petty needs.
