Why do the majority of people think America was founded a Christian nation?

Question

Our founding fathers were NOT CHRISTIAN. I have seen this brought up in a few questions and answers. The majority of the founding fathers were deists, which is the belief in a creator (God) but that God didn't impact daily life at all. The didn't even believe in the divinity of Jesus. As a matter of fact, a few of the founding fathers leaned very close to athiesm. (Jefferson, Paine, and even Washington) If you do not believe me, do your own research, it won't take much.

Point is...America never started out as a Christian nation!

Fish...name me 5 founding fathers who were Christian

List of Founding Fathers and their beliefs.

Washington - Deist (though some historians argue for Athiesm)

John Adams - Deist (but again can be argued as an athiest. He is on of the authors of Article XI of Tripoli)

Jefferson - Athiest (Deist at best)

Paine - Athiest (Deist at best)

Madison - Athiest (Deist at best)

Franklin - Deist

http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/farrell_till/myth.html

http://freethought.mbdojo.com/foundingfathers.html

http://dim.com/~randl/founders.htm

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050221/allen

Answer 1

You are right. I think people just hear it over and over and over from their pastors, who are liars at least as far as this point is concerned. People trust their pastors, they do not expect to be lied to in church. Maybe Marx was right, that religion is the opiate of the masses. It sure seems to induce a lot of fantasies in its believers, doesn't it?

Answer 2

Well first off deists were more around Europe when the age of new thought came about, and seeing as how the majority of people in the U.S. did believe in Christianity and we are not a country that forces one to believe one religion than we as a majority at the time were christian. Whether or not the founding fathers were deists or not is not significant because as a whole the people were Christians. Thus we are, or at least started out, as a christian nation. No educated person thinks the founding fathers were strict Christians otherwise we would have been ruled as a christian nation at that time.

Answer 3

To aid in your argument that we did not start out as a Christian nation, I will list examples strengthening your position.

1. 27 biblical violations were cited during the writing of the Declaration of Independence.

2. Patrick Henry stated "Our country was founded on the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

3. 52 of the men who signed the Constitution were active members of their church.

4. Noah Webster, author of the first dictionary could literally quote the Bible chapter and verse.

5. Thomas Jefferson once called the Bible the cornerstone of liberty and put it in the schools.

6. James Madison said "We've staked our future on the ability to follow the 10 Commandments."

7. In his farewell address, George Washington said, "You can't have National morality apart from religious principle."

There. That should clear things up. Oh, wait. I guess this really didn't strengthen your point at all, did it? Shame on those silly facts for messing things up.

Answer 4

I'd like to see a source on this.
"The didn't even believe in the divinity of Jesus. As a matter of fact, a few of the founding fathers leaned very close to athiesm."
Because no one knows what is in anothers mind.
The reason why most people believe America was founded a Christian nation is because the founding fathers portrayed Christianity in their work. Ever hear of "Under God", "In God we trust", "created equal", "Creator", ect...

And you say
"America never started out as a Christian nation!"
well let me ask you a question. What religion was followed by the majority of the popluation at that time? Certainly wasn't atheism, evolution hadn't even been thought of then. Least not on a sizable scale.

It's funny, the expression used to be "Bible Thumpers". I believe that that expression is still true, just in the other sense. LOL!

Answer 5

John Adams was solid Christian. Jefferson became Christian later in life. The majority of the founding fathers were Christian. More importantly, they drafted a constitution based on Christian precepts. Perhaps you have studied the subject with an agenda. The reason the majority of people think America was founded a Christian nation is because it was.

Answer 6

There are a couple of reasons for this.
First some people say our nation was first founded by John Winthrope and his notion of the Christian "city upon a hill."
Second, people assume our nation is Christian in origin because the majority of people settling here and living here were Christian and a lot of Christian tradition seeped into the secular world of government. But of course the founding fathers allowed this. Even if they did not follow the traditions themselves, they were far too pragmatic to rail against every religious tide in the country. They would have alienated 90% of the population from them.

Answer 7

united states of america of america is a Christian usa because of the fact the founding fathers based the form on Christian ideals. besides the undeniable fact that, that isn't what makes it a Christian usa at present...that's a effect of our political philosophy. The U.S. is a rustic "of the human beings, for the human beings, and by using the human beings". In a democracy, the government is a mirrored image of the will of the human beings. The identity of the rustic is, by using definition, a function of the identities of the human beings. like it or no longer, a splash greater desirable than 75% of the inhabitants of united states of america of america identifies themselves as "Christian".

Answer 8

You are right and Fish is not...I also have researched it. People are told this in church. The best thing about Jefferson is that he learned much about all the major religions and basically said they had the same message. The fact that they wrote a constitution insisting on freedom of any religion and seperation of church and state meant that they saw a need for any country to exist for very long they needed these things to be seperate from law as well as equally accepted under the law.

Regina: you are talking about the first people here..pilgrams...not the founding fathers.

Answer 9

When this nation started most people in north America were Native Americans who did not believe in a Christian god.

The churches donate to politicians who then have to give lip service to their views.
Some mainstream media is controlled by right wing fundamentalists and presents their bias as fact.
Watch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gksp2UXpSyg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4fQA9mt-Mg
And read or listen to "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens
For more info.

Answer 10

Majority is incorrect. If that were true they demand we be made a Christian nation.

We were founded by a bunch of Carpetbaggers.

AMERICA was colonized by Christains and then Lawyers, Accountants, Scientists, Diests, Politicans came over once the Christians made this place profitable and they took over.

America was FOUNDED by LAWYERS

The people eveyrone wants marched into the sea, except in when California had a vote that would tie their hands and keep the individual from getting 2 million dollars in awards, they VOTED IT DOWN

So people really don't want to march lawyers into the sea. They just like to bash them!

Answer 11

THE TREATY OF TRIPOLI SAYS THIS NATION WAS NOT FOUNDED ON CHRISTIANITY. THE CONSTITUTION SAYS RATIFIED TREATIES BECOME THE LAW OF THE LAND.

"The Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."
John Adams, Treaty of Tripoli, Nov 1796
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsp&fileName=002/llsp002.db&recNum=24

"This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land."
- Article VI of the U.S. Constitution
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/articles.html