the deists—a clockwork image of the universe—although by virtue of a merely ad hoc modification of deism they continued to insist that God could indeed break in from the outside and perform miracles. In fact, early modern Christian apologists were themselves partly responsible for the origins of modern atheism by failing to employ the doctrine of the Trinity (specifically Jesus as the eternal Son of God who is co-equal with the Father) in their defense of the Christian faith.8 Enlightenment thinkers