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quite the character he was...

Many people believe that our founding fathers were all fundamentalist Christians and actually, this is a popular misconception. David McCallough's book "The Founding Father's" discusses the religious beliefs of the founding fathers in detail. The Continental Congress was composed of several atheists and many agnostics.In fact Thomas Jefferson was obviously among the agnostics. The founding fathers did not hold the general populace in high regard. They felt that if the governmental writings did not evoke "God" the common folk would see no reason to pay them any mind, and there would be rioting in the streets. Jefferson's writings reveal that he believed the new republic to be very tenuous and felt that cloaking the documents in a mandate from the divine would make sure that the general population was more easily lead.

It is the religous organizations in this country have done a good job of convincing us that our forefathers were all fundamentalist Christians. The facts simply don't support this contention

"if the governmental writings did not evoke "God" "

I read somewhere (not McCullough, which I haven't read) that though he himself was not too religious, Jefferson thought that folks required the "fear of God" as motivation to be virtuous.

There are many books on the religious beliefs of the founding fathers.McCallough's book isn't the end all on the subject.What was McCallough's agenda? There are hundreds of Jefferson quotes which clearly show that Jefferson was a Christ believer.Jefferson wasn't an agnostic.What evidence is there that Jefferson thought poorly of the common people.?I don't buy it.That would make Jefferson like the elitist,liberal,communist forces of today. The same bunch that believes faith is delegated to the stupid.Quite the contrary there has been a relentless assault by the same bunch to discredit religion and to distort history.

Jefferson proposed a the seal for the United States which would reflect the spirit of this new nation.It follows;

The children of Israel in the wilderness led by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

You know what? I'm tired of this stupid discussion. Look, here are the facts:

1) Jefferson and presumably no other FF was an atheist

2) Jefferson and many of the other FF provide many quotes that show that their beliefs seem to sway between deism and traditional Christianity.

3) Jefferson and almost all the FF have a background of traditional English Protestant Christianity. A very few were Catholics.

4) None of the FF were of a background of another religion, such as Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, or Judaism (there have been one FF that had a connection to Judaism maybe?)