[RushHannity]

Founding Fathers views on Religion:

Thomas Jefferson:
"The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter."
-“The Christian god can easily be pictured as virtually the same god as the many ancient gods of past civilizations. The Christian god is a three headed monster; cruel, vengeful and capricious. If one wishes to know more of this raging, three headed beast-like god, one only needs to look at the caliber of people who say they serve him. They are always of two classes; fools and hypocrites. To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.”
-“I have examined all the known superstitions of the Word, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. They are all alike, founded on fables and mythology. Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the world. “



James Madison:
"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise."
"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution."

Thomas Paine:
-“I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of...Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all."
-“Accustom a people to believe that priests and clergy can forgive sins ... and you will have sins in abundance. I would not dare to dishonor my Creator's name by [attaching] it to this filthy book [the Bible].”


George Washington:
-“Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be deprecated. I was in hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy, which has marked the present age, would at least have reconciled Christians of every denomination so far that we should never again see the religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of society.”

-“To give opinions unsupported by reasons might appear dogmatical.”
-“There is nothing which can better deserve our patronage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country t

[Blessed]

Quotes are interesting but bare no relevance to the discussion.Many Christian theologians have raised similar arguments against "the practice of religion".The predominance of writings and speeches from the founders indicate they founded this country on the principle that government exists to preserve "god Given Liberties".The God they referred to was the Judao-Christian Deity.

[maine-iac7]

Thomas Jefferson espoused 'listening, following' the words of Jesus - he cut his bible up to separate them, especially from the teachings of Paul, which often were at variance - He believed - as do many - that many Christian churches are founded more on "Paulinist" doctrine, than Jesus teachings.

I, for one, agree

[KC Burke]

Of course, every public person in that age commented countless times upon the nature, importance and effects of religion, churches, denominations, theology and history. Additionally, each quotation was within a context, often one that gives the quotation a strikingly different meaning than when read alone as a free-standing phrase, sentence or couplet.

Your very selective collection of quotations is complied in a manner to sway the unschooled and is therefore unconvincing to most.

You are welcome to hold your views on the matter but I think that all should improve their views with study. A good book on the history of this issue at the time is Michael Novak's On Two Wings, Humble Faith and Common Sense at America's Founding. I suggest is for its extensive footnoted original source usage.

The Free Thinker tradition was well established in the colonies as well, but hardly dominante or instrumental.

Did it make some important contributions? Certainly, but not in the manner or by the persons noted in your selective quotations.

[rwfromkansas]

Nice use of selected proof-quoting.

I could quote from Washington's prayer journal if I wanted to, which is staunchy Christian.

Quotes are not good historical tools.

[Huntingtonian]

Excellent references. You will undoubtably be deluged with naysayers arguing that your quotes out of context or that a few quotes aren't enough. Of course, these doubters will NEVER apply the same standards to the the legions who will supply context free quotes from those on their side.

It is clear that the founders were almost universally believers in God. Many (but not all) were Christian. I doubt ANY would have had us abandon the works of Rousseau, Montesquieu, Locke, Kant, Hume and Decartes in favor of those of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In fact I suspect they would have seen the rise of biblical litteralism as the cancer to free thought that it is.