In the Philosophy of Religion 'deism' is one of the four basic definitions of God. Deists maintain that God is an omniscient, omnipotent, being who created the Universe but who does not intervene in the creation. The argument for God's non-intervention goes something like this: If God is omniscient and omnipotent he would have made the Universe as well as it could be made. If the Universe was made as well as it could have been, it does not require his intervention (miracles) to fix whatever problems may exist since no better Universe is possible. This view of God was very popular at the height of the Modern period (the 18th and 19th Centuries).