> were they not joining their eastern brothers in raiding Europe's coasts?
Offhand I don;t know if the Icelanders were; but if so... more power to 'em. Monastaries were loaded with stolen gold. Great targets.
> We have to share some of our credit with the deists perhaps, but not with the wiccans.
Who said anything about Wiccans? I said "pagan." That includes many of the people that the Founders looked to for inspiration, guidance, and legal precedent.
Well, if you're talking about the Greeks and Romans, it's true that technically they were a pagan culture. However, the great Greek philosophers (Aristotle, Plato, etc.) were not looking to their gods for moral inspiration, but looking for some greater God or principle above the Olympians or Titans. Indeed, the Greeks' higher moral yearnings were completely independent of the natures and activities of the gods they worshipped. As one more modern philosopher put it, "The God of the Hebrews left His people because of their immorality; conversely, the Greeks left their gods because of their gods' immorality."
In that respect, you would be hard pressed to demonstrate, especially from first-hand historical documentation, how the pagan worship of the many gods like Zeus, Artemis, etc. contributed to the old republics. One can't say the same for the connection between Christianity and the American Republic--the Founders' writings are so rich with their faith in the One God and Christ that they practically can't be taught in the public schools anymore.