[hunter112]

Well, it’s not quite from “atheism” per se, but the idea of religious tolerance from the Founding Fathers (who had various degrees of religious belief) might be such an idea. The Muslimes are centuries late to that idea.

[Mrs. Don-o]

"Well, it’s not quite from “atheism” per se, but the idea of religious tolerance from the Founding Fathers (who had various degrees of religious belief) might be such an idea."

Not quite from atheism. :oP

I daresay even the tiny-minority Colonial-era Quakers (not to mention the Baptists/Anabaptists, etc.) decisively eclipsed the Colonial-era Atheists both in numbers and in influence on that point.