Please help me name a certain someone*

I remember reading a book my friend reccommended me once about religious viewpoints and there was one article talking about "how it would nice if there was a God that answered every single prayer but it isn't true; the world is like a complex machine, all with gears and sprockets which determined certain laws and principles, of which is built and maintenanced by God."

I believe this was written in during the Enlightment, but i'm not sure.

I don't know who was the writer was, but i just remember that this was his viewpoint.

-can anyone help me find this writer's name?