Were our Founding Fathers agnostic, deistic, and atheist?

Question

I have heard this claim several times, even going so far as to say "most" were. I can list a few deists and unitarians. Ben Franklin, Ethan Allen, John Adams, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and perhaps one or two more. Can anyone point out an atheist or show a majority of non-religious people?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_Fathers_of_the_United_States

JT, I don't think Franklin was "near atheist." Here is a quote:

Benjamin Franklin Address at the Constitutional Convention Thursday June 28, 1787

"I have lived, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- that God Governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?"

Skeff, some did intend a Christian nation (but were thwarted).

Patrick Henry

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religion but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We shall not fight alone. God presides over the destinies of nations."

Answer 1

You're right, the claim is often overstated. The responses are often in reponse to the opposite claim that the founders were christians with the intent of founding a christian nation. That is false.

Answer 2

Atheist Founding Fathers

Answer 3

Founding Fathers Atheist

Answer 4

The problem is, even in the Renaissance, people were still a little too uncertain of the new sciences to accept a universe that wasn't somehow created. The deists of the age were the atheists of today. Thomas Jefferson, for example, is more atheist than theist in my book, because he had nothing but contempt for the deist god he believed in, equivalent to saying, "So you created all this? What a lousy job you did of it! You suck!" Jefferson went so far as to take the old testament, threw it out, took the new testament, removed all prophecy and discussion of miracles, and kept only Jesus's teachings of morality. We now know this text as the jeffersonian bible.

Ben Franklin almost assuredly was atheistic in the same sense as he admitted numerous times that during his trips to France, he'd participlate in the Masse Noir (Black Mass) or other rituals that passed as Satanic in those days.

And many of the founding fathers *WERE* Christians of one form or another -- but the documents upon which this country is founded were written by near-atheist deists, and the Christians among the founding fathers signed off on those ideals.

Answer 5

The most prominent of the Founders such as George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Ethan Allen, and here in North Carolina Ezekiel Polk, Charles Polk, and Charles and Ezra Alexander were Deists rather than Christians. Deists believed in the supremacy of human reason over faith and revelation, and disdained the supernatural. They opposed both government suppression and government establishment of religion.

Answer 6

No, I don't know of any atheists... only deists/agnostics. (Agnostics, btw can also be atheist, deist, theist, and so on).

The one thing I do remember is this - deism was the result of a lack of faith in religion and a lack of scientific discovery that would come later. I feel confident that most of those people would have been atheists had they lived in this age of science and discovery. However, that's just my opinion and it really doesn't matter.

The only thing that matters to me is that the arguments that the US is a Christian nation or that it was founded by Christians are debunked as often as necessary. This country was meant to be free, not Christian or otherwise religious.

Answer 7

Some like Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin were deist, but they certainly believed in some sort of God. They just didn't like organized religion. Those are two I can think of off the top of my heasd that I know for sure.

Answer 8

at the time you mention the population was made up of three groups. Religious people who had been persecuted and came here to escape. Criminals which was by far the largest element and then there were the outcast royalty who came here so as not to be an embarrasment to dear old Dad and instructed to invest and hold positions of authority. They were called torys b4 the war, if they did not switch sides to stay alive. The majority were religious. The things currently sited as separation between chuch and state were written in to keep the state out of the church (put there by the previously religious who were persecuted) not to keep the church out of the state. That is just the historical fact.

Answer 9

The founding of America was based on getting away from countries where the kings and the churches watched each others' backs. That left no place for people with other beliefs. England was happy to get rid of those pesky heretics.

Most founding fathers had a more personal relationship with the Creator. They believed strongly in individual rights and responsibilities.
One of those rights, which resonates with me, is that no one has to have a Pope or a priest to stand between him/herself and God.

Not all were religious in the sense that they didn't belong to a specific church. They were all devout in their beliefs, except for Franklin, who enjoyed making light of everything.

Some were of strict Puritan like faiths.

Here is a link:

http://www.sullivan-county.com/id3/debate.htm

Answer 10

If you weren't a member of a Church you weren't able to hold any office or power.

This doesn't mean you had to be a believer, it means you had to go to church, sit there and no fall asleep.

Up to today, if you want to get elected in about 35 of the 50 states you have to be able to show you go to Church

Alaska, Washigton, Oregon, California, Nevada, Hawaii don't care that much.

If you're a Protestaant or JEw you have a tough time getting elected to any office in the mostly Catholic state of Massachuesettes

A Catholic or JEw will have an impossble time getting elected to dog catcher in Utah or Texas or Alabama or Missisippi.

The seat of power is being a rich, male landowner who is both a Mason and on the board of the Church.






Just about every other state does!