America was founded as a Christian Nation....according to Thomas Jefferson?

Question

who said:
"God who gave us life and liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed the conviction that these liberties are a gift from God?" - Thomas Jefferson

So why should we believe clueless atheists that are trying to convince us otherwise?

I choose to believe Thomas Jefferson and reject the atheists who are trying to re-write history to suit their own selfish agenda.

"It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God and to obey Hs will". -- George Washington

Any historian knows by the life and writings of Geo, Washington that he was an avid Christian. Denial of that fact is simply deception

Answer 1

They want to deny our history and make it their own to better brainwash the youth of America, such as myself. After all, evolution, not creation, is their worldview. They even tried to brainwash me in 9th grade.
They failed.

Answer 2

Thomas Jefferson would not say we were founded as a Christian nation. We were a nation founded by many Christians based on Christian principles. There were several deists involved in the signing of the Constitution, but it was not popular for a politician to admit not being a Christian then. He wasn't unpatriotic- just living out his beliefs. But Americans try to rewrite history when they try to push Christianity out of the picture. If we look at the Christian symbolism found all through our culture- the fact that freedom of religion was at the top of the list, the fact that Congress HIRED a chaplain to start every session of Congress with prayer, the 10 Commandments being posted in our courtrooms as a basis for law, the first Universities all being started as seminaries to train ministers, "In God we Trust" being put on our money- we have to realize that our founding fathers intended for our country to have an overall faith in God. As Christians, they set up the country based on biblical principles. It is truly a shame that we now try to erase those principles by removing God from our culture. Our forefathers would be horrified if they knew what has happened to America. This was never their intent.

Answer 3

...and Christianity was founded on Jewish values and ideals. So what?

You want to point the finger at those with selfish agendas? You might begin with the religious right and end with the President (a devout Episcopalian), both of whom uphold these nation-founding 'Christian' principles but conveniently discard portions of that nation's constitution (separation of church and state) to legislate morality and suit their OWN selfish agendas. Christians or no, I doubt that's what Thomas Jefferson had in mind (this is the SAME Thomas Jefferson who had several illegitimate children with his mistress -- a woman enslaved under an institution we NOW view as immoral and 'un-Christian').

Answer 4

Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear. Thomas Jefferson


"I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature." -- Thomas Jefferson

"The Bible is not my book, and Christianity is not my religion. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma." -- Abraham Lincoln

Thomas Paine, The Theological Works of Thomas Paine, p.207
"All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit."

.our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry" --Thomas Jefferson



1. That there are three Gods.
2. That good works, or the love of our neighbor, is nothing.
3. That faith is every thing, and the more incomprehensible the proposition, the more merit the faith.
4. That reason in religion is of unlawful use.
5. That God, from the beginning, elected certain individuals
to be saved, and certain others to be damned; and that no crimes
of the former can damn them; no virtues of the latter save."

Answer 5

Let's live and let live and why do you care what someone else believes? Are you going to hell because he doesn't become a Christian?
Let's don't get like those people over there. Then once they are a Christine or Muslim. Say then you have to be Catholic or Protestant or maybe Mormon. Stop the control and forget about it.
What do you care what he believes? They are killing each other because of some clause in the same religion.
Would God want you to tie up 15 men and douse them with Keroscene and set them on fire. While others watched not helping as they screamed in horror as they burned up.
Is that really what God wants us to do? Stop fighting over what someone else believes.

Answer 6

The people who founded this country were Christian....they spoke very highly of religious freedom. It is all the "sue happy" people that make such a big damn deal about Christianity in our nation....nobody is asking that all the people of this country be Christian...however this is the heritage of our country and no one has to like it but accept it. How much blood was shed by our fore fathers so that we can have such a place to live. We as a nation, are so worried about being politically correct and not wanting to hurt peoples feelings that soon if all these laws to exclude the founding principles of our nation keep being passed for the sake of "not wanting to offend"some one....the basis of our country will be gone....our heritage...our American history will be removed. Is this what we really want???? No one "HAS TO BE" Christian ....but the people who founded this great free country were!!!
People need to start growing a slightly thicker skin and understand this....ACCEPT THIS!!!
Go Thomas Jefferson!!!!
Any citizen of this country has the right to believe in whatever religion they choose or none at all.....but by all means don't feel sorry for yourself and ask America to remove it's heritage!!!!
Our country was founded by God fearing people and in way were they forcing any one to believe in God!!

Answer 7

He was a "Deist," an eighteenth-century school of thought that held that the Universe we know had a creator, God, but that God had decided not to miraculously intervene in the Universe that he (she? it? they?) had created. He believed that the Bible was purely the product of human beings, and even wrote the "Jefferson Bible," in which he pictured Jesus Christ as a great man who had worked no miracles, someone like Socrates or the Buddha or Confucius or Lao-Tze. He even felt confident that the day would someday come when the supposed virgin birth of Jesus Christ would one day be viewed as fictional as the emergence of Athena from the head of Zeus, as he expressed in one letter. For his part, he did not care if someone believed in twenty gods or no god at all.
I have never said he was an atheist. However, many of the founding fathers were.

Answer 8

Thomas Jefferson wasn't a Christian, he was a Deist and he projected that this country, by now, would likely be Unitarian (a church often considered "non-Christian" by Christians). Deists believe in God, but not Jesus or Christianity. The mere fact that Jefferson says "God" means he believes in God, it does not promote Christianity. What he says in your quote is perfectly in line with Deist thought.

BTW, George Washington was a Deist, too. (Note: A prayer book "written" by Washington was rejected by the Smithsonian because it was forged).

Answer 9

I agree with Chani. Quote mining Jefferson to find something that you agree with is not the way to understand the man's political philosophy.

Jefferson was also the first to write about the wall of separation between church and state. Look it up.

As for "God's will," neither you, nor I, nor George Washington could ever possibly know what that is! God is by definition unknowable, therefore his/her will can be known only to him/her.

Answer 10

His quote has nothing to do with Christianity - it has to do with the source of our rights. The Founders believed that our rights came from a Supreme Being, or God. They were adamant about not wanting to create a theocratic federal government, but the state governments continued to have established religions into the nineteenth and even twentieth century.

Answer 11

You should read all of Jefferson's writings. He says he does not care what a person believes, and saying to trust in G-d does not mean this is a Christian nation. Jefferson, and many of our forefathers were Deists, not Christians-----they merely believe in G-d, not Christianity.