America Founded On Christianity??? See Details!!!?

Question

Was America founded on Christianity?
Were the founding fathers CHRISTIANS, not just religious?
Is there recorded proof of their lives that they were Christians?

If you have answers and proof to these questions, please answer them and give the website you got the information from with it.

Thanks so much, include your opinion too please!

Answer 1

Some of our Founding Fathers were indeed Christian, but there were more non-Christians than Christians among them. Freemasonry, deism, and atheism combined were more common.

NO, America was NOT founded on Christianity in any way. A letter written by Joel Barlow, approved by the U.S legislators, endorsed by Thomas Pickering (the Secretary of State at the time), agreed upon and signed by John Adams (president at the time), and approved by the Senate, states it clearly. It was called, in short, "The Treaty of Tripoli" and you can find it here: http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/diplomacy/barbary/bar1796t.htm#art11

Answer 2

Take a look at my source. Conservative George Will reviews a new book on this topic, and the review should clarify the situation considerably.

The bottom line is that the notion that this is a "Christian Nation" is completely false.

Whether the Founding Fathers were Christian or not, the fact that they kept religion out of the Constitution establishes the nation's non-religious nature. This case is closed. Those who continue to argue that the United States is a Christian Nation are simply liars, and are promulgating anti-American views. This country is better than that, and Christianity should be better than that as well.

Answer 3

Here's what Wikipedia says:

In terms of religious affiliation, the men were mostly Protestants. Only three, C. Carroll, D. Carroll, and Fitzsimons, were Roman Catholics. Several were not particularly religious. Although not a religion, a significant number were Freemasons including John Blair, Benjamin Franklin, James Mchenry, George Washington, Abraham Baldwin, Gunning Bedford, William Blount, David Brearly, Daniel Carroll, Jonathan Dayton, Rufus King, John Langdon, George Read, Roger Sherman, James Madison, Robert Morris, William Paterson, and Charles Pinckney.

Answer 4

America was most deifinitely not founded on Christianity. The founding fathers were, in fact, deists and American settlers were fleeing the oppression of the English Church. In the colonies, the Church began to duplicate the English oppression and that is why the founding fathers specifically mentioned their comittment to freedom of religion in the Constitution.

Also, many of our Capital buildings actually include many Pagan symbols and architecture, such as the Roman type scrolled pillars, the scales and the blind lady of Justice, etc.

Namaste,
Gwen

Answer 5

America was founded on FREEDOM from tyranical and unfair rule.Some of the most intelligent people of their day emmigrated here to found a new more fair society.Many of the founding father were geniuses.Benjamin Franklin comes to mind first and formost.That man pioneered so many different schools og thought as well as many invetions that we still use today(he did NOT discover electricity though).
The founding fathers were innovative free thinkers.Some of them were Christian,some were not.I keep getting violations for posting links so I'm afraid that this is all that I'll offer.

Answer 6

The American Colonies were populated, initially, by large factions of orthodox Christians, basically known as the Puritan Pilgrms. They were very protestant and back then classified themselves as either Congregationalists or Presbyterians. A large faction believed in separation of church and state, but other factions required local government to be guided by the church.

Soon other religioins, such as Catholics, who settled in Massachuesttes arrived, followed by patriots from England who brought the Chruch of England with them which became the Espciopal Church in America.

The Anabaptists and the rising of the Baptist religion in America also tended to be in favor of separation of Church and state.

Finally rich enterpernuers came from England and the descendents of these people would be the founders of the American Goverment.

These people were somewhat well to do, artistocratic and practised arm chair religoin, like most people do to this day.

Most of the framers of the Constitution, Bill of Rights and Delcaration of Independence had a or some belief in God, but not in organized Religion.

Some found considerable fault with the Christians who persecuted and burned witches and others as heretics.

Some were believes in Jesus, but not any of the religions spawned after his death.

The concept of God was incorprated into the Declaration of independence.

The concept of freedom of religion was incorporated into the Constitution, because all the frames saw the tyranny that lead to religious persecution by government and they wanted to avoid this.

There were some attempts to inlcude God and Jesus, but these were defeated because there was not enough support amount the various states.

What was included into the Federal Constitution was that no person was required to use the phrase "so help me God" in taking an oath of office.

Basically relgious authorities and histrains tend to unanimously agree that Christianity was not a serious influence nor were the framers of the goverment heavily Christian, in fact many were cynics, although most beleived in God and some in Jesus.

Most were lawyers, scholars, historians, writers and lawyers. They help philosophical points of view, some had religious influences in childhoold (mostly Calvanists), but by are large they were skeptical or critical about organized religion, hence they were not Christians in the Orthodox of Fundamentalist sense.

The United States, therefore, was founded as a relgiously netural nation.

http://www.ecis.com/~alizard/founding-fathers-xtianity.html

http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/summer97/secular.html

http://www.nobeliefs.com/Tripoli.htm

There are, however, some contradictory or ancellary things that come from direction quotations that seem to indicate a more relgious side to some of the cynics:

http://www.eadshome.com/QuotesoftheFounders.htm

Answer 7

As Brooke Allen argues convincingly in his new book "Moral Minority: Our Skeptical Founding Fathers," the most we can say about Franklin, Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison is that they were philosophical Deists who on occasion saw fit to give the public appearance of denominational allegiance.

This attitude is perfectly consistent with the language of the 1792 treaty with Tripoli that states that the United States Government " ..is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion." Keep in mind that George Washington is the U.S. president when the Senate UNANIMOUSLY ratified this language for the treaty.

A humorous aspect of this is that when Hamilton was asked why the Constitution made no mention of God, he "jauntily" said, "We forgot." (Did Steve Martin steal that line?)

Answer 8

What's up Babs, I thought we'd been over this before. In addition to my previous comments, I have given you web site sources. Hardcore right wing Christians have for many years tried to make the futal case that the Unites States is a Christian country. This arises out of their bigotry rather than historical fact.

Many of the forefathers followed Unitarianism, which at that time was heavily based in Christian doctrine. In fact Jefferson wrote in 1822,

"I rejoice that in this blessed country of free inquiry and belief, which has surrendered its conscience to neither kings nor priests, the genuine doctrine of one God is reviving and I trust that there is not a young man now living in the United States who will not die a Unitarian.""

They were religious liberals and believed in religious toleration. They specifically chose not to make the United States a religious state. They broke with the European tradition of the divine right of kings.

This was further emphasized later with the establishment clause of the first ammendment to the constitution which forbids the establishment of a state religion.

They were men of principle regardless of their faith, and those principles did indeed affect the Constitution.

Answer 9

If the USA was founded on Christianity then you will have a lot of difficulty explaining why God is not mentioned in the Constitution at all.

The answer is "NO". Our government is founded on the concept of a representative democracy with freedom of religion, which means that you don't have to be a Christian or believe anything.

Answer 10

Many of our early leaders were atheists. I don't have specific websites but put atheist founding fathers of America and I'm sure you will get the answers you seek. A rather rebellious bunch really. Have a great day.