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| Queen of Sheba |
There is such a fascination with knowledge in this account as she desires to travel from (supposedly) Ethiopia to Solomon in Israel. On the way there, as the story goes, Queen of Sheba expresses her desire for wisdom: "Hearken, O ye who are my people, and give ye ear to my words. For I desire wisdom and my heart seeketh to find understanding; for wisdom is far better than treasure of gold and silver." Deism is kind of a religion, but more of a viewpoint that organized religion is not needed and that reason and observation of the natural world will reveal that the world is a creation and has a creator. Deists usually dismiss supernatural things such as prophecy and miracles. Solomon seemed obsessed with wisdom, and of course Queen of Sheba and others were interested in the knowledge of Solomon; "Wisdom is the best of all treasures" the Queen says. However there are definitely differences in Solomon's views compared to a deist's views. Solomon believed that he should let God intervene in his life and he feared God: "He gave commands with dignity, and his replies were made quietly and with the fear of God." This differs from Deism as they believe that God, though he/she created everything, does not interact with people.
Personally, I believe that the deist point of view is a more reasonable point of view, because it seems that God is not totally active in our lives and reason and knowledge is a more reasonable way to go about things (though I am not sure that there even is a god in the first place). Although Solomon's great use of knowledge was ahead of its time. Either way, it is interesting that Solomon used great wisdom in his rule and this concentration on wisdom was prevalent at some point long ago and it is similar to the beliefs of our forefathers (as they were–arguably–deists).
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