What unadulterated bull hockey! As I just posted in another thread, deism never really caught on in America. It was fleetingly embraced only by a handful of non-founders during a very brief period in the 19th century. Jefferson, when accused of being a deist, hotly and indignantly denied it. And although Franklin's youthful flirtation with deism is well-known, his later repudiation of it is also no secret. Deists, as you know, don't believe in providence (divine intervention) and therefore don't believe in the utility of prayer. They also do not appeal to scriptural authority. Note Ben Franklin's speech to the Constitutional Convention, which follows --
"In this situation of this assembly, groping, as it were, in the dark, to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings. In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of dangers, we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending Providence in our favor. To that kind Providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance?
"I have lived, sir, a long time, and, the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth--that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writings, that 'Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.'
"I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed, in this political building, no better than the builders of Babel. We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded; and we ourselves shall become a reproach and by-word down to future ages. And, what is worse, mankind may hereafter, from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing governments by human wisdom, and leave it to chance, war, and conquest.
"I therefore beg leave to move that, henceforth, prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service."
Sound like a "deist" to you? In just this one citation, we see Franklin referring repeatedly to divine intervention, calling for prayer and citing scriptural authority. Of the 55 men at the Constitutional Convention, a typical account of their faiths will show 28 Episcopalian (Anglican), 8 Presbyterian, 7 Congregationalist, 2 Dutch Reformed, 2 Lutheran, 2 Roman Catholic, etc. There was hardly a "deist" to be found among them, so your argument that the "primary" founders were "deists" is absurd. Did you know that in some states in 1789, you couldn't even hold public office if you were a deist? As early as the Great Awakening of the 1740s, deism was a distrusted and discredited relic of the French enlightenment, and as late as 1828, Noah Webster's definition of "deism" left no doubt about this.