[1] In Western philosophy the concept of deus otiosus has been associated with Deism since the 17th century, although not a core tenet as often thought.
[1] In the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika school of Hinduism as well as in the other ancient Indian schools of philosophy, early philosophical and cosmological theories were predominantly atheistic or non-theistic, which postulated that all objects in the physical universe are reducible to paramāṇu (atoms) of substances whose aggregations, combinations, and interactions explained the nature of the universe.
[6][7][8] In the 1st millennium CE, the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika school added the concept of Ishvara to its atomistic naturalism.
[6] In the 11th century CE, the organization of atoms was cited as a proof for the existence of God by some Nyāya and Vaiśeṣika atomists.
[7]: 337 A similar concept to the one of deus otiosus is that of deus absconditus (Latin: "hidden god"), formulated by two prominent Scholastic and Roman Catholic theologians that lived during the Late Middle Ages: Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274)[10] and Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464).