“Many of the founding fathers were atheists or agnostics.”
That’s simply not true.
M.E. Bradford researched the private papers of the signers of the Declaration, the framers of the Constitution and the men who ratified it, and it is the basis of his book ‘A Worthy Company’. The overwhelming majority were Christians, the few who were not (and they were few) were mostly Deists with Tom Paine and Ethan Allen arguably being agnostic or atheist.
First of all, thanks much for the kind comment about my post #18 in this thread. It's very appreciated.
As for Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin's letter to Thomas Paine is really worth a look. That piece ends with these words, "In fact, Paine's views caused such vehement public opposition that he spent his last years in New York as 'an outcast' in 'social ostracism' and was buried in a farm field because no American cemetery would accept his remains."