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Originally Posted by Frame57
Ben Franklin was still a man of faith. Regardless whether or not he was embraced by the protestants. He was real. He questioned things, which is good. He studied the scriptures and clearly saw that Jesus was not God...I applaud him. However that has no bearing on the fact that he had beliefs that led him to requesting that congessional session be opened with prayer.
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True. One only has to read his beautiful self-composed epitaph to realise that. But the argument made by the hardcore Right is that he was a Christian through-and-through. My disagreement is on that point alone, since that seems to be the only thing that matters to them.
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Thomas Jefferson was a maverick indeed but what Athesist would write the following in the preamble of the declaration of Independance,
"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..."
or the conclusion of the document,
"...and for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance of the protection of divine providence..."
Granted this historical document makes no reference to who this creator is, but that is moot because a creator is a creator period. Only a nitwit would imply that our Founding Fathers were really closet Buddist. These men were probably not what Jerry Falwell would have us to think. They may not have even attended church regualrly for that matter, but the point here is that no matter what their personal views were regarding God, they often and publicy cited God and prayer and divine providence. This fact is indisputable and is hopefully forever preserved in our national archives.
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True again. Jefferson was accused of Atheism by the people who hated him. But he was quite reticent about what he really believed, and gave them good fodder for dismissing him as definitely not being what they called a Christian. I don't think any of the founders was what Jerry Falwell would have us believe, as you put it, and I agree that they were probably not what Ellen Johnson would want us to believe either, but again my argument is with the insistence that America was founded to conform to Christian principles, and it's my belief that those very principles were what those founders were trying to avoid having be the controlling factor of the government.