Have the people of say that the USA is founded on Christianity ever heard of the Enlightenment?

Question

If they have, how can they ignore the overwhelming influence that intellectual movement had on our Founding Fathers?

Here's a little link to buff up on your history.

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

Maybe so Pif, but the culture didn't write the Declaration of Independance or craft the Constitution. The people who did were a mix of theists, deists, and atheists. Its intresting to note also that NONE of them were fundamentalist christians.

See the Light.(what an ironic name) You scoff so casually at what is the very foundation of our great nation. Perhaps you'd be more at home in a theocracy?

Sean, I'm not sure what they'd call the Age we're in now. But as more and more people forget the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment, I fear we're headed for Dark Ages, part 2

Marianne is completely ignoring three points.

1. One of the goals of the Enlightenment was promoting a secular government.

2. As stated before none, zero, not a single one, of the founding fathers were fundamentalist evangelical christians. By todays standards most would be said to have an extremely liberal interpretation of their faith.

3. The writings of the American founding fathers have a lot more in common with Locke and Rousseau than they do with Moses and the Apostles. They occasionally invoked the deist idea of God (the unmoved mover, the Supreme Being, etc, a being vastly different that Jehova) as a justification for their work, but they NEVER invoked the 10 commandments or any part of the Bible in their political writings.

Hey101, the fact that you think the First Amendment gives us "way too much freedom" is really telling. I think I can guess what you belive in, and it isn't Liberty.

The whole point of this was not to prove that the US and its principles are opposed to Christianity. It was meant to educate fundamentalist christians. Many of them try to distort the facts in an attempt to justify giving their religion a special place in America, above all other religous considerations.

The Treaty of Tripoli, passed by the U.S. Senate in 1797, read in part: "The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion." The treaty was written during the Washington administration, and sent to the Senate during the Adams administration. It was read aloud to the Senate, and each Senator received a printed copy. This was the 339th time that a recorded vote was required by the Senate, but only the third time a vote was unanimous (the next time was to honor George Washington). There is no record of any debate or dissension on the treaty. It was reprinted in full in three newspapers - two in Philadelphia, one in New York City. There is no record of public outcry or complaint in subsequent editions of the papers.

Answer 1

Hi Skippy, from what I understand, the founding fathers were Freemasons. The masons of that time expected that every member was a deist but all religions were accepted into the lodge as brothers. If you do a search on 'founding father freemason' there are numerous well written pages explaining the masonic influence on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution in addition to our currency, the architecture of the US Capitol, etc.

Answer 2

You have no idea what our history is. This country was founded by a majority of christians, and yes, christians are also deists who believe in God....Jews were also here, and made significant contributions to our society and freedom.

It is all through the historical documents and personal writings of the first fathers of this country about their belief in not just a creator, but the one identified by the judeo-christian bible. The founders wery very religious, the bible was center in everything they did, which they often quoted. The bible was the main reading text in public schools. About 90% were christians, and the rest were those that had a general belief in god. None were atheists. You have civil liberties today because our consitution & civil law was based on the 10 commandments.

You seem to distinguish between enlightenment and christianity. To accept he truth of God IS enlightenment. God is truth. To walk in darkness, and denial, is not enlightenment, no matter how "intellectual" people think they are.

PS..my father was an American History teacher..

Answer 3

Stop focusing so strongly on your beloved USA, religion and even atheism is way bigger then your country. Both will exist when the USA is just another 2-3 pages in the history book.

"we are heading for the Dark Ages, part 2", you are just one country, how will you start a second dark age?

Answer 4

The culture back then was not theistic. In fact, they were afraid of theism and warned us repeatedly about it.

Today's Americans think the Founding Fathers were fanatical Christians just like themselves. Far from it.

They were deists, not theists.
They were deists, not theists.
They were deists, not theists.
.

Answer 5

the country isn't, or ever replaced into consistent with christianity. US in basic terms based faith replaced into based by heretic Puritans and Calvinists who have been banished and despatched to the yank colony's as convicts to flee the noose. For there heresy and blasphemy, of the real Christian faith. The God, that US individuals created and shop on with isn't an analogous christian god, as all real christians who all proceed to be meek shop on with, it is loving, forgiving, and non judgemental. US individuals, even have rewrote the christian bible 5 circumstances. including Freudian words, Americanised euthanisms, US American in basic terms used discrimination, verses and texts which too never existed, to tournament there US in basic terms based faith. (you may google it)

Answer 6

The founding fathers were no Christian, they were deists. They believed on the moral teachings of the Bible, but not the miracles, such as creation and the virgin birth.

Answer 7

Um yea that true but at the same time the first group of people who came over to America where Christians ( there are many denominations) and they did convert their slaves to Christianity and based their principles on Gods word.... Also notice how they use to pray in public schools back then and so on. On the back of paper money is " in God we trust"... the Constitution was the only loop hole where they gave too much freedom yet they created it for the times they lived in; they possibly couldn't imagine anyone exploiting it ( ACLU ).... But im not angry I'll pray for them and watch them on television when the next September 11 or Hurricane Katrina happen singing "God Bless America".. on yea Go George W Bush I don't agree with all his policies but hes on to something good enlightened liberals don't like him...

Answer 8

The age of enlightenment, what age are we in now?

It's great that we went through that because it caused us to become smarter and better able to create government and laws.

Here is what they call the Era we are in The Dunkadelic Era

Answer 9

Didn't native Americans have a better religion than Christianity in keeping intune with the environment, which we are just beginning to re-learn?

Answer 10

yes, technically, the usa was founded on scientific belief, rather than Christianity, and also, since this country was full of native americans beforehand, i dont know that "founded "is even really an accurate term..