The U.S- Founded upon Chritianity?

Question

The Treaty of Tripoli "was sent to the floor of the Senate, June 7, 1797, where it was read aloud in its entirety and unanimously approved. John Adams, having seen the treaty, signed it and proudly proclaimed it to the Nation." (1)

Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli states "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion;" (2)

Now, lets think. This was the founding generation of our Nation. It was about 30 years from the Revolution. And the Senate of our nation UNANIMOUSLY voted to declare that our nation was NOT founded upon Chritianity. And President Adams PROUDLY PROCLAIMED IT TO OUR NATION!

Wow, how can it be any more clearer the U.S. was not founded upon Chritianity?

So, where does the idea that America was based upon Christianity come from? The Christian history-revisionists who have the political agenda of turning our nation into a theocracy.

Lets us seek out the truth!

References:

(1) http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/buckner_tripoli.html

(2)http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/treaty_tripoli.html

Ben Franklin was NOT an atheist. He was a Deist.

Shortly after the founding Generation had passed, there was a great revival and the Xians took control of this country. So, any monuments built were engraved with the Xian religion.

But this nation was originally founded upon the Freedom of Religion, that all religions are valid, and that anyone can follow any religion. Too bad the Xians had to repress that!

Jefferson and Adams were not Atheists, either. Jefferson was a Unitarian that had strong Deistic beliefs, and Jefferson himself was a Deist.

I don't think Atheism really existed in our founding generation. Not amonng the Elite. They had to explain Life somehow, and evolution had not yet come out as a Scientific discovery...

There is one HUGE difference between Atheists and Deists, and that is Deists believe in a Creator. Atheists don't. It affects our worldviews. It might even affect our morality.

Saying there is no difference between these two groups is like saying there is no difference between Chrisians and Islam. You both have holy texts, you both believe in Jesus/Isa, You believe in God. You just differ on Muhammed, and that affects your other beliefs like who exactly Jesus/Isa is...

Answer 1

Excellent question and follow-up details.

It's clear to me, at least, that, though most of the founding fathers were men of faith (of one sort or another--but certainly not all orthodox Christians, as the religious right would have us believe), they also strongly believed that one's faith or moral philosophy is something best left to conscience or between the individual and his god. They established a government that would not interfere with religion.

In short, the United States of America was not established as a Christian nation. It was established as a nation dedicated to freedom of conscience.

DL:
If you'll examine the references on the web page you sited, you'll find that the John Adams quote is not from the Tripoli Treaty but from a letter written by Adams to Thomas Jefferson on June 28, 1813.

Answer 2

Not so fast....think about this...READ THE TREATY IN IT'S ENTIRETY.

This article (The Treaty) may be read in two manners. It may, as its critics do, be concluded after the clause "Christian religion"; or it may be read in its entirety and concluded when the punctuation so indicates. But even if shortened and cut abruptly ("the government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion"), this is not an untrue statement since it is referring to the federal government.

Recall that while the Founders themselves openly described America as a Christian nation (demonstrated in chapter 2 of Original Intent), they did include a constitutional prohibition against a federal establishment; religion was a matter left solely to the individual States. Therefore, if the article is read as a declaration that the federal government of the United States was not in any sense founded on the Christian religion, such a statement is not a repudiation of the fact that America was considered a Christian nation.

John Adams also stated in the SAME TREATY
"The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were. . . . the general principles of Christianity. . . . I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God; and that those principles of liberty are as unalterable as human nature. 25"

Answer 3

Awesome!!!!!!!!! Finally someone who actually does look into these things and doesn't just spout off. Last time I mentioned the Treaty of Tripoli, all I got was some emails about how that was the history that was changed by us Heathens in order to make it look like this isn't a Christian nation. All one has to do is look at our prisons to know this is not a Christian nation.

Answer 4

Is there really any doubt about this? Gosh, I hope not. I thought it was a well-known fact that the founding fathers were Deist and that they didn't want an official religion... argh, there's our awesome public school system at work again...

I love some of the quotes from the founding fathers about Christianity. Like this one:

"The Christian god can easily be pictured as virtually the same god as the many ancient gods of past civilizations. The Christian god is a three headed monster; cruel, vengeful and capricious. If one wishes to know more of this raging, three headed beast-like god, one only needs to look at the caliber of people who say they serve him. They are always of two classes: fools and hypocrites."
-- Thomas Jefferson

Doesn't sound like someone who wants the country to be "founded on the Christian faith."

Answer 5

The founders of this u . s . have been very wonderful and correctly knowledgeable men. Now there is not any somewhat clever Christian that would discovered a rustic on the Christian faith. Christians be attentive to that Christianity isn't a countrywide element, that could be a private element. It does no longer count how lots Christianity is institutionalized, in lots with the aid of fact the governing physique of a rustic is in contact, that business enterprise does extra injury than sturdy. The Christian business enterprise is the church with its corporal bodies. Even the church is conscious the variation between the homes, the institutions, and the real Church (with a capital C) that's the real physique of born back and saved believers with Jesus Christ. The founders does no longer placed any non secular means interior the hands of a governmental physique. They have been fairly apprehensive approximately any of the means that they had to grant the federal government. They properly understood the means of sin in each mans life. the final element they needed become a state church. So, of direction the beginning up of this u . s . as a central authority is in contact isn't based on Christianity. however the founders did be attentive to, in case you have not got faith me than you haven't any longer studied background, that Christian values and morals have been the underlying beginning up of this u . s .. while the founders got here out of the constitutional convention with the record complete, the individuals have been waiting exterior. They asked, "what variety of government did you supply us". The founders pronounced, we've given you a constitutional republic. How long are you able to retain it. What this meant, and the founders properly knew this, become that the only thank you to be a unfastened human beings become to be a those that observed Christian ethical values. If human beings strayed from those morals, the households might wreck down. human beings might become corrupt and the governments may well be allowed to run amuck. So, purely like maximum themes. there are a number of distinctive ranges and ranges and flavors of issues which would be taken in to attention. It takes an clever and correctly examine suggestions to handle maximum themes. purely with the aid of fact in one record it says "no longer in any experience", you may understand the context and motives at the back of it. particular, our federal government isn't a Christian federal business enterprise, in any experience, yet there are extra dimensions to this situation which would be considered.

Answer 6

Indeed. And now a word from a founder:
"The whole history of these books [the Gospels] is so defective and doubtful that it seems vain to attempt minute enquiry into it: and such tricks have been played with their text, and with the texts of other books relating to them, that we have a right, from that cause, to entertain much doubt what parts of them are genuine. In the New Testament there is internal evidence that parts of it have proceeded from an extraordinary man; and that other parts are of the fabric of very inferior minds. It is as easy to separate those parts, as to pick out diamonds from dunghills.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, January 24, 1814

Answer 7

Deists are people who believe God created everything then split the scene.
The founding fathers were Deists, most of them.
What is the difference between a Deist and an Atheist? Nothing worth talking about!

Answer 8

Derek H. Davis -- director of the J.M.
Dawson Institute of Church-State Relations at
Baylor University and editor of the Journal of
Church and State -- fills a void in the study of
church-state relations by examining the
proceedings and acts of the Continental Congress
regarding religion, a subject that has been
neglected or dismissed as irrelevant.
Davis seeks to discover Congress’s original
intent respecting church-state relations to
determine if it might help resolve "the modern
debate over the original intent of the constitutional
framers regarding the interplay of government and
religion" (p. 199). He links his study to his interest
in present-day church-state relations.[1]

http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.cgi?path=20391971901965

Answer 9

Why do you think that this country is BASED on Christianity? Just because some of our founding father's believed in God and a few were Christians, religion was NOT the basis of this country.

Answer 10

But the *laws* of our nation are based on "Old Testament" laws which Jesus discounted. (Have you ever heard a jury quote "turn the other cheek?")

Please don't use the Christian interpretation of the vicious eye-for-an-eye quote. All the laws in the OT are *maximum* punishments. *Judges* determined guilt and punishments according to case law found in the Talmud (also forbidden to Christians). Guilt was very difficult to prove since many cases required two eye witness. You can find that requirement and appointment of judges in the OT itself.

Please don't judge the OT by the NT.

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