When you talk about Founding Fathers being religious, you do realize their primary religion was Deism, right?

Question

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Presidential_religious_affiliations

Answer 1

Of course! I am a Deist. In fact, so was Thomas Jefferson and he wrote the Declaration of Independence in which we find the quote:" ...endowed by their Creator..." This is why one cannot be an Atheist and a good American.

According to our system of government, all of our rights come from the Creator. They are not granted by government and cannot, therefore, be removed by government.

This is not a secular country! One does not have to belong to any particular religion but a belief in a Creator is required.


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Answer 2

Bravo MJR. Newton did not realize this but his work basically did away with one of the major reasons for believing in a higher power, so it was not till later that atheism started really taking off, probably with Laplace. And Darwin and Wallace's work on evolution pretty much did away with any justification for religion. What few people, other than MJR apparently, realize today is that today's religionhas almost nothing to do with older religion, precisely because today there is nothing that religion explains (or even apparently explains), whereas originally religion was a feeble attempt to understand where babies come from and why the sun and the moon and the stars do not fall down to earth!!

Answer 3

Deism was the thinking man's atheism of the day. It was relatively difficult to be an atheist since there were two huge questions that Christians would throw in the face of anyone who denied them:

"Where did we come from?"
"How did the universe start?"

Of course, science has since answered those two questions (Evolution and the Big Bang, respectively), which for the first time, gave secularists ammunition to fight religion. Perhaps this is why of all science, Evolution and the Big Bang theory are the two most hated sciences among religionists. They of course claim to be pro-science and progress, but their venom towards these theories show their true colors; they are opposed to anything that contradicts their vision of the universe.

And yes, you are right, the founding fathers were Deists. They frequently had to make shows of faith because their political opponents would paint them up as atheists in order to turn the population against them. A few select quotes from various founding fathers

We have abundant reason to rejoice that in this Land the light of truth and reason has triumphed over the power of bigotry and superstition ... In this enlightened Age and in this Land of equal liberty it is our boast, that a man's religious tenets will not forfeit the protection of the Laws, nor deprive him of the right of attaining and holding the highest Offices that are known in the United States. --George Washington

Reason and Ignorance, the opposites of each other, influence the great bulk of mankind. If either of these can be rendered sufficiently extensive in a country, the machinery of government goes easily on. Reason obeys itself; and Ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it. --Thomas Paine

I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved -- the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced! --John Adams

Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal 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


Need I go on?

Answer 4

Actually, Thomas Jefferson is the only president who was officially a Deist. Many of the Founding Fathers were Masons, and to be a Mason, you must believe in a higher power of some sort. They were of several different religions.

Answer 5

Jeopardy had a question this week regarding Amercian history, and who said that there should be a Bible and a newspaper in every house. It was Benjamin Franklin. Several quotes of founding fathers regarding the Bible, God, and religion are listed here:

http://www.constitutional.net/qff.html

"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.
It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible."
- George Washington


And here is the whole quote from Ben Franklin:

"A Bible and a newspaper in every house, a good school in every district- all studied and appreciated as they merit -
are the principle support of virtue, morality, and civil liberty."
- Benjamin Franklin; March 1778

Answer 6

Those founding fathers from Boston were Congregationalists. The only 'deist' I'm aware was Tommy Jefferson (didn't he write his own Bible?).