A CHRISTIAN NATION – DEISM
Deism:
(1) The belief in the existence of a God on purely rational grounds without
reliance on revelation or authority; especially in the 17th and 18th centuries.
(2) The doctrine that God created the world and its natural laws, but takes no
further part in its functioning. Webster’s
New World Dictionary — Third College Edition
As the quotes on this page illustrate, the claim that America was founded on
Christianity is a myth. Many of the Founding Fathers and Revolutionary War
leaders were Deists, and upheld a firm separation of church and state.
“Point
for point, the Founding Fathers’ argument for liberty was the exact counterpart
of the Puritans’ argument for dictatorship — but in reverse, moving from the
opposite starting point to the opposite conclusion. Man, the Founding Fathers
said in essence (with a large assist from Locke and others), is the rational
being; no authority, human or otherwise, can demand blind obedience from such a
being — not in the realm of thought or, therefore, in the realm of action,
either. By his very nature, they said, man must be left free to exercise his
reason and then to act accordingly, i.e., by the guidance of his best rational
judgment. Because this world is of vital importance, they added, the motive of
man’s action should be the pursuit of happiness.
Because
the individual, not a supernatural power, is the creator of wealth, a man
should have the right to private property, the right to keep and use or trade
his own product. And because man is basically good, they held, there is no need
to leash him; there is nothing to fear in setting free a rational animal. “This,
in substance, was the American argument for man’s inalienable rights. It was
the argument that reason demands freedom.” —Leonard Peikoff, “Religion vs.
America,” The Voice of Reason
John Adams, the second President of the United
States, signed the Treaty of Tripoli
(June 7, 1797). Article 11 states:
“The
government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian
religion.”
Additional quotes from John Adams:
“Where
do we find a precept in the Bible for Creeds, Confessions, Doctrines and Oaths,
and whole carloads of trumpery that we find religion encumbered with in these
days?”……..“The Doctrine of the divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for
absurdity.”………“...Thirteen governments [of the original states] thus founded on
the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or
mystery, and which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole
quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favor of the rights of
mankind.”
From
a letter to Charles Cushing (October 19, 1756):
“Twenty times in the course of my late reading, have I been upon the point
of breaking out, ‘this would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were
no religion in it.’”
From a letter to Thomas Jefferson:
“I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of
the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved — the Cross.
Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!”
Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the
United States, interpreted the first amendment in a letter to the Danbury
Baptist Association (January 1, 1802):
“Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between church and State.”
From
Jefferson’s biography:
“...an amendment was proposed by inserting the words, ‘Jesus Christ...the
holy author of our religion,’ which was rejected ‘By a great majority in proof
that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and
the Gentile, the Christian and the Mohammedan, the Hindoo and the Infidel of
every denomination.’”
Jefferson’s “The Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom”:
“Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, more than on
our opinions in physics and geometry…”
Jefferson’s
Notes on Virginia (Query 17, “Religion”):
“The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are
injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are
twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. . . .”
“Reason and persuasion are the only practicable instruments. To make way for these free inquiry must be indulged; how can we wish others to indulge it while we refuse ourselves? But every state, says an inquisitor, has established some religion. No two, say I, have established the same. Is this a proof of the infallibility of establishments?”
Jefferson’s letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823:
“The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme
Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of
the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.”
Additional
quotes from Thomas Jefferson:
“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by
itself.”
“They [the clergy] believe that any portion of power confided to me, will
be exerted in opposition of their schemes. And they believe rightly: for I have
sworn upon the alter of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny
over the mind of man.”
“In every country and in every age the priest has been hostile to
liberty; he is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in
return for protection to his own.”
“Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every
opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there
be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded
fear....Do not be frightened from this inquiry by any fear of its consequences.
If it end in a belief that there is no God, you will find incitements to virtue
on the comfort and pleasantness you feel in its exercise and in the love of
others which it will procure for you.”
“...that our civil rights have no dependence on religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics and geometry.”
James
Madison, the fourth President of the United States, wrote in the Memorial and
Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments:
“Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise....During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution.”
Additional
quote from James Madison:
“Religion and government will both exist in greater purity, the less they
are mixed together.”
From
Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography, p. 66:
“My parents had given me betimes religious impressions, and I received from
my infancy a pious education in the principles of Calvinism. But scarcely was I
arrived at fifteen years of age, when, after having doubted in turn of
different tenets, according as I found them combated in the different books
that I read, I began to doubt of Revelation itself.”
“...Some
books against Deism fell into my hands....It happened that they wrought an
effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them; for the arguments of
the Deists, which were quote to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger than
the refutations, in short, I soon became a thorough Deist.”
From Thomas Paine’s, The Age of Reason, pp. 8–9:
“I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman
church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church,
nor by any church that I know of....Each of those churches accuse the other of
unbelief; and of my own part, I disbelieve them all.”
“All
natural institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear
to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind,
and monopolize power and profit.”
“The most detestable wickedness, the most horrid cruelties, and the greatest
miseries that have afflicted the human race have had their origin in this thing
called revelation, or revealed religion.”
“Loving of enemies is another dogma of feigned morality, and has beside no
meaning....Those who preach the doctrine of loving their enemies are in general
the greatest prosecutors, and they act consistently by so doing; for the
doctrine is hypocritical, and it is natural that hypocrisy should act the
reverse of what it preaches.”
“The Bible was established altogether by the sword, and that in the worst use
of it — not to terrify but to extirpate.”
Additional quote from Thomas Paine:
“It is the duty of every true Deist to vindicate the moral justice of God
against the evils of the Bible.”
Ethan Allen, from
Religion of the American Enlightenment:
“Denominated a Deist, the reality of which I have never disputed, being
conscious that I am no Christian.”
This is an article from the Ayn Rand Institute. http://religion.aynrand.org/quotes.html