Posted on 01/28/2008 8:24:20 AM PST by William Tell 2
How liberals and atheists have misinformed people about the Founding Father's religiuos beliefs.
http://www.thebulletin.us/site/news.cfm?newsid=19238913&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=623508&rfi=6
They were deists. The problem is that the meaning of the word has changed and they were deists in the old sense of the word which was merely the opposite of atheist. See e.g. Jefferson to Rush letter from April 1803.
ML/NJ
Thanks. I’ll bookmark.
What I find ironic is the secularists’ frequent citation of the Treaty of Tripoli, withits langiage stating that the US was not founded on the Christian religion. At the time this was signed, the Barbary pirates were attacking US vessels and taking American sailors hostage, and demanding tribute. In fact, the treaty addresses these payments to the pirates as well. After the treaty was signed, however, it was broken by the other side and the US sent its military “to the shores of Tripoli.
The treaty is NOT evidence of the secular foundings of our nation, but rather that the troubles we’ve had withradical Islamists of one stripe or another stretch back FAR before 9/11.
Scholars can argue about the founding of this nation, and they do. But the Treaty of Tripoli is about as credible a piece of “evidence” as a videotaped hostage statement.
One thing that the author neglects to mention is that there would have been no “need” to insert any denial that America was a Christian nation, but for the fact that the treaty was with Muslims. The Treaty of Tripoli was an appeasement treaty.
Exactly.
Oops! I should have read the link first! Yes, he brings up the Treaty also.
Again, though, this treaty says nothing about the US, but a great deal about the mindset and tactics we’ve had to deal with in the Middle East, right from the beginning.
ML/NJ
later
We have no government armed with power capable of
contending with human passions unbridled by morality
and religion.
Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break
the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale
goes through a net.
Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and
religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.
John Adams (1735 - 1826)
I agree with you .. they were NOT all deists.
I believe some of Benjamin Franklin’s writings state as much .. when Ben told of the deliberations during the writing of the Declaration of Independence.
However, the majority of our founders WERE Christians and were not ashamed of their faith.
Rush has stated that during the Revolution, there were 3 groups of people .. those who wanted to fight for freedom from England, those who sided with England, and those who didn’t give a rip. And .. Rush said .. those 3 groups are still with us today.
“Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and
religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.”
We are in BIG trouble!!!!
Only Franklin was a self described “Deist”. All others were member of Christian denominations including several catholics.
My religion consists of a humble admiration of the
unlimitable superior who reveals Himself in the slight
details we are able to perceive with our frail and
feeble minds.
That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of
a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the
incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)
Yep, it is now inadequate.
It really helps to know what you are talking about before beginning to post here at FR. The Oxford English Dictionary is essentially a history of meanings and usage of the words in the English Language. Here's what the OED has to say:
deist: One who acknowledges the existence of a G-d upon testimony of reason but rejects revealed religion.The italics are in the OED. The OED goes on to quote something Locke wrote in 1695 as an example of this interchangeability. (Hmmmm. John Locke. Did he have any influence on Mr. Jefferson?)
(The term was originally opposed to atheist, and was interchangeable with theist, even in the end of the 17th C.)
You probably didn't have a look at the letter I linked to as it would be obvious that Mr. Jefferson employed Locke's usage of the word when he said of the Jews, "Their system was Deism; that is, the belief of one only G-d."
ML/NJ
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