Do you think the founding fathers believed in God?

Question

Probably even the anti-believers believe that they did.But go ahead and tell me why it was such a poor idea to base their idea on "one nation under God" .And why it was a bad idea.

Answer 1

There were devote men, some that doubted and others that didn't believe... IHS Jim

Answer 2

The "founding fathers" were secularists above all, when it came to their jobs. The One nation Under God clause is NOT part of the Constitution nor the Declaration of Independence (which is not a codified law, by the way), nor was this expression an "idea" from the "founding fathers."

The personal belief system of many of them, is known as Deism. This has to do with the God of Nature. Most of them, also, were Freemasons, and the constitution is patterned after many of that organization's tenets, NOT the 10 commandments. Nowhere in the entire Constitution is the word "God" used.

When people claim "the majority rules" they are not aware that this too, is NOT a codified law. In a true democracy, it would be, but the United States is a REPUBLIC with democratically elected REPRESENTATIVES who must, above all, work within the boundaries of the Constitution. The will of the majority is NOT above the law of the land.

Religious neutrality in government does not inherently embrace atheism or non-theistic religions. On the whole, it preserves the rights of everyone by not favoring the beliefs of any one group. This accomodates all and harms NONE.

I have also heard people say that "Freedom of Religion" does not mean "freedom FROM Religion." This implies that everyone MUST declare a religion. That is absurd.

Look at the preamble to the US Constitution which IS the highest codified law in this country. Remember the words, "secure the blessings of LIBERTY to ourselves and our posterity." And this is done in the bill of rights.

It was NEVER the intention of the founding fathers to make this country a theocratic state. If it had been, they HAD the power to do so at the time the Constitution was being drafted and ratified. They did NOT DO SO. They didn't even try!

My nephew once told me in regards to one of the bible belt counties who had a big uproar about the 10 commandments being posted in a courthouse, that it was ok for local populations to vote on whether this religious expression is acceptable or not. This is incorrect. The Constitution denies congress, the highest lawmaking body in this country the power to establish an official religion. Since local governments are subordinate to the laws passed by the national congress and the Constitution, they are also not empowered to establish and embrace religion in an official capacity. As an afterthought, I asked my nephew if it was ok for county governments to call elections to locally overturn the ban on slavery. He denied that it was allowed.

A truism that made it into the bill of rights in both the form of the 9th and 10th amdendments is that any power not granted or denied by the constiution is reserved for the states or for the people. It is also stated that even though the constitution does not verbosely guarantee a particular right, it does not mean that the right does not exist.

Read the 1st, 9th, and 10th amendments You can see they address this issue perfectly.

The official establishment of religion by government is verbosely FORBIDDEN at the national level, and therefore it is not allowed at any level of government thereunder.

QED

Answer 3

Yes! No, it was not a bad idea, in fact it was highly liberating compared to what other nations were doing with religion vs. what they insisted the people believe and do. Freedom OF Relgion, not Freedom FROM relgion.

http://www.adherents.com/gov/Founding_Fathers_Religion.html

The separation of church and state idea has morphed in today's time. No one wanted a pope or clergyman to run the government FOR the people according to laws and doctrines that were unfair and hurting people rather than empowering them. People had become veritable slaves to their churches and congregations - they wanted to be free to practice all relgion, keep the good things that were common to all good religion and keep the government from becoming a controlling influence in their lives, but instead to make it work for the people rather than for itself.

It is true that when you look most religions do share some common ground and moral values. This is a good idea, not a bad idea.

It is only a bad idea when government forces a certain religion upon its people. America never has and hopefully never will become a nation that forces any religion. But, eventually it will be discovered that God is a fact and not a figment of myth - and is not always an indicator of relgion.

Religions don't always have God in them. The Buddhist religion for example is one of the best most peaceful relgions without a God.

For the minority few, this is a good thing to separate the church and state, but these few need to recognize that good laws which work for their freedom and liberty generally come from olden religious belief systems. Such as "the truth will set you free" .. .which is an inspiration in the legal system...

So, what is a bad idea is to "throw out the baby with bathwater" as they say.

Continuing comments:

In ultimate reality, The Most Highs rule in the "kingdoms" of men, and because of God's everywhereness, there is no real way of "keeping Him out"... it's an oxymoron. Religion is not always of God, but instead sometimes mankind's perception of God. For most people, God rules in the heart and soul and He guides people internally - no matter what jobs they work in, whether secular or government or whatever. If you are following all that you perceive is really good, true and beautiful, then you are without a doubt following God's leading in your life. There is no way to separate this in actuality unless you personally and knowingly choose evil, sin and iniquity, or actually reject Our Father who IS the First Source and Center, the Only One and True God who is eternal, infinite, God of life, living and love: If you reject those things you internally know are wrong, time and again and finally decide you're doing good, then you've become iniquitous.

Men can design laws and governments, good and bad... the Real Father has nothing bad in Him, it doesn't exist in Him - so to come to know Him is far better than to quibble over whether using His name in an anthem or declaration is good or not.

Try as you might, God is here all the time and you live within Him, move and have your very existence, your being is inherently in Him.

But men have always fought over this and it's no surprise they want to go back and figure out what the founding fathers of the US believed.

No, they weren't bad to do what they did - it was an epoch in the history of the world which shows the evolution of relgion and a wonderful example of truth seeking.

We now live in a new epoch of this same thing, only bolder.

Answer 4

They where mostly Deist which means they believed in a god that kicked started the universe and since then has stated out of its affairs.

And the one nation under God didn't show up until the 1950's when McCarthyism took over

And the reason its a bad idea is because it was placed there for no other reason then to build support against the evil godless commies and takes in to consideration no ones beliefs. In other words while people can make the BS excuses that its not specific to a god it still ignores all polythisic religions and of corse Atheist.

Answer 5

Some were Christian, a few were Deists, some were nonreligious in the sense many Christians would recognize. Read "Thomas Paine's "Age of Reason" if you don't believe me. I believe their intent was to create a country not based on religion but where all people would be free from religious coercion and free to believe or not believe what they believe or didn't believe in peace. Even the believers amongst them came primarily from more "liberal" Christian beliefs and would not have been literalist fundamentalist brand Christians we see so much of today. I think most of the Christian founders were Congregationalists and Episcopalians who did not share the particular perception of Christianity that is held by most of the Christians today who want to soften the separation of church and state.

Answer 6

Most of the founding fathers were deists, believing in a higher power but not in any specific religion. As to why "one nation under God" is a bad idea, who's God do you follow? Should it be Allah, Jesus, Buddha, etc.? The reason why the founding fathers tried to separate religion from government is because Religion ruled government in Europe for centuries and Kings were kings because of "Divine Right," whatever that is. They wanted a government run by the people, not by the church.

Answer 7

As I recall from when last studying history, they were Christians. However, they lived in a time when religious persecution of the protestant was not too far removed. They therefore placed protections in to the US Constitution to ensure that noone would be persecuted for their beliefs, and that people had the freedom to express their views. A few of the founding fathers also had a healthy dose of cynicism when it came to religion - as opposed to faith.

Answer 8

I think many of them believed in a version of God that made rational sense to them. Some were sincere members of various churches. Some were marginal "in name only" members of various churches. And some were athiests.

Just like in America today.

I don't think it was a bad idea at all, so I can't answer you there. Everyone should be free to worship or not worship however they see fit, as long as it doesn't impinge on anyone else's rights.

Answer 9

The founding Fathers didn't base it on "one nation under God." That phrase came from the Pledge of Allegiance, which was written by Francis Bellamy as a companion to Columbus Day celebrations in 1892. In 1954, President Eisenhour had them add the words "Under God." What's this to do with the Founding Fathers?

Answer 10

I think you're confusing "one nation under God" (i.e. religious freedom, upon which this country WAS founded) with a theocracy that enforces your beliefs on everyone else.

Two very different things. Our country is and always has been the former, NOT the latter.

Answer 11

History writes it. Literature writes it. Letters prove it. They left England because of the Church of England controlling politics and also the catholics persecution of the protestants. The Catholic church did not want the Bible translated into English or any other language. In doing so they knew they would lose control over the people and the ungodly pope burned people and called them heretics for believing different from him.

The founding fathers knew "whoever God sets free is free indeed." Freedom of religion and freedom from tyrants and dictators was very important to our founding fathers. Many lost their property and lives for freedom. Our founding fathers had a great, God given idea of freedom, but they always thought America would believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob whose Son is Jesus the Christ. They even mentioned that only a Christian should run for office of the government. They wrote that without Christ America could not be governed as the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence proclaimed. The "endowed by our Creator" for the Declaration of Independence and "In the year of our Lord" for the Constitution are clear markings that our forefathers were Christian. You can't govern America without Christ. What our Supreme Court and lower courts are trying to do goes against our Constitution and against our forefathers. The Word of God is not a "hate crime." The Word of God protects people and protects good from evil. We are wrestling against invisible evil and demonic spirits. Man is both flesh and spirit.

These "hate crime's legislation" are the devil's way of ruling America. The devil will shatter the power of the Holy people any way that he can. Evil's greatest threat is the Word of God and if evil can get rid of God's Word then evil can flourish. But I wish to tell evil, that God said His Word will not perish.

Stand against "hate crime laws" and stop evil. Stop evil that evil calls "hate speech." America is still "One Nation Under God" and we are not "Under Evil" yet. Stand up America and stand against evil.