[Mylo]

I didn't. Ben Franklin defined HIMSELF as a Deist. Despite the previous posters naked and unsubstantiated lies that he had some sort of death bed conversion to Christianity; he described himself as a "thorough Deist".

[Apogee]

I didn't see that you did, that is why I was wondering.

The textbook definition of deism seems to not be consistent with Franklin's, as he both claimed to be a deist, and to believe that God intervened in the affairs of men.

Many of the doubters or deists of the day do not seem to have any beliefs that are not held on some level by much of the American church today, but in their time were considered aberrant.

Then there are the mis labelings of folks like Locke, and possible misrepresentation of Newton (Wikipedia seems to be hung on proving he was non trinitarian based upon his questioning of whether the original text in a certain passage was as we have it today, something that many moderns do in many places without in any sense thinking themselves nonbelievers, deists, or even serious doubters - for the record, the sources in their articles are Muslim, and they seem to have a vested interest in imputing non-trinitarian beliefs to people). All in all, I would like to see some scholarly research and distinctions made on the topic.