Why do so many Americans erroneously believe all the oft-cited "Founding Fathers" were Christian????

Question

Have these people ever HAD a history class?
Does all their history come from their pastor?
Is it just voluntary self-delusion?
Is it threatening to acknowledge that Thomas Jefferson was no fan of Bible thumpers?

All this error, with the majority of Americans attending government schools no less!!!!!

Most of them were Christian eh? Name the Christians ones and cite individual proof from that founder, not one word on one document that was drafted in a committee.

Incidentally, ever perused the Treaty of Tripoli?

rolling stone ... you don't realize it (obviously), but you just perfectly illustrated my point!!! it's christmas in february!

Answer 1

I guess it's the same reason why so many of them insist that Einstein was a Christian. It's totally untrue, just like the rumor about the founding fathers, but it sounds good, so some people will believe it no matter what you tell them.

Answer 2

You have to remember that most scholls don't spend any time on the religious areas of history. MY son is 13 and his history class said did mentin that religious freedom was one of the issues that brought the pilgrims to the New World, but nothing about the particulars. Not even what religion the pilgrims were. It is a commonly held ( and perpetually reinfoced) myth that everyone back then was a Christian and devoutly religious. The idea that people in that time period would have been anything else just doesn't occur to most people. But then the idea that there are people NOW that are anything else doesn't occur to them either.

Thomas Jeferson hated organized religion, but he did believe in God.
John Hancock was an agnostic.
Benjamin Franklin was a Freemason.

Part of the perpetuation of that idea is the consistant reference to the U.S. is a Christian country, founded on Christian principles. That implies that the founders were Christian.

Answer 3

The paramount reason why the forefathers came to this country was for religious freedom. They listed it as their top goal in forming America. Matter of fact most of the forefathers weren’t even Christian, but deist, atheist and agnostic. As a matter of fact, Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli of 1797 specifically mentions the US is NOT a christian nation.

"As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion,-as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen,-and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."

I'm beginning to think people who believe the founding fathers were christian either lack the ability to read, have not bothered to read any US history or let someone else 'interpret' all reading they do for them.

~Morg~

Answer 4

Because many Christians believe that if you believe in a god, then you must be talking about their god. Many of the founders were Deists. That is evident in their use of the phrases "Nature's God," "their Creator," and the idea of unalienable Rights in the Declaration of Independence. All of those ideas come from Deistic thought. Even if most of the founders were Christians, it is obvious that the Deists had great influence on them.

Also, some of the founders caused confusion because of their seeming support of Christianity. For example, Thomas Jefferson was a Deist, but he believed in the moral teaching of Jesus himself, while rejecting the Bible as a whole. He called the authentic teachings of Jesus diamonds, but the Bible as a whole a dunghill. In his Notes on the State of Virginia, the Christian religion takes quite a bashing.

Benjamin Franklin was also a Deist, but he endorsed the Christian religion. He believed that the masses needed the punishment/ reward system of Christianity to control bad behavior.

Answer 5

Actually, as a student in history classes long ago, and as a history teacher, religion isn't somehing you often touch upon in classes.

Here's a few facts about history class -

1. The textbooks tend to be biased and I've yet to see a single one that touches on the founding father's religious preferences; the focus was on what they did.

2. A history teacher only has this much time (see the line to the right)______ and this much history to try to teach in that time._____________________________________________. Lots of things barely get touched upon; we have to get though the state mandated requirements for the class.

3. Teachers in public schools have it made very clear to them to NOT discuss religion except in passing as it relates directly to the subects being discussed.For example, it's perfectly fine to say the Puritans came to the Americas to escape religious persecution. It is NOT fine to go into any real detail, especially the discussion of each founding father's religious and spiritual beliefs (cause while some were Deists, some were other things.)
To discuss religion as a teacher, in a position of influence, in a public school directly violates the separation of church and state, and most teachers do tend to like their jobs and want to keep them.

This subject doesn't come up until people get to college, and for some, not even then.

So, yes, they have history class, yes the schools stick with the law and don't teach religion in any way, shape or form in public schools, and the rest is just insulting and shows you don't have a clear understanding of the regulations in place in public schools.

Or maybe you want to have a teacher lecturing your kids about how christianity is so great - because if you change the rules so we can discuss the founding father's beliefs, it changes for everyone and allows that type of thing to happen.

I sure as BLEEP don't.

Oh, and Deists DO believe inthe Christian god - they just believe god made it all and then left it to run itself.- for the one who says Deists aren't believers in the same god.

Answer 6

First off all, you're generalizing. Many don't believe this to be true. Some assume this since Christian morals are shoved down our throats nowadays. I know this is shocking but some Americans actually do read and know their history. The others that just spout off nonsense are just loud and seem to outnumber those of us who actually have neurons.

American history isn't black & white. Some people want to romantize our former leaders and make them into Christian role models when in reality, most were far from it. We don't all think this way, ok. American schools do NOT teach this either. In fact, religious freedom was the basis of this country, not Christianity.

Answer 7

Well, actually a lot of them were Christians, it's just that the ones we all remember were deists. By no strech of the imagination does this make it true that the country was founded on Christianity, the founding fathers who were Christian believed in religious freedom, unlike those who have run the country for the past 50 years.

Answer 8

thank you, all you have to do is look up "enlightenment philosophy" to see what influenced our founding fathers. On the religious side it was deism. they do teach this but religious people don't want to listen. Oh, and by the way most of the religious "proof" you see cam about after the founding fathers like "in god we trust" written on money (1956) and christmas (1870). Here's something interesting, read the constitution and count how many times god is mentioned... If you came up with anything other than zero your reading the wrong thing.

Answer 9

Same reason that everybody else is deluded about history. People hear scraps of information from different sources throughout their lives, and those scraps form an impression. People, rational as they are, take that impression as fact. I have seen it among non-Christians as much as Christians. The history of Christianity, in particular, is horribly misunderstood by both parties.

Answer 10

Read the first two paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence moron. When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.