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Old 07-07-2010, 07:37 PM
 
Location: Quiet Corner Connecticut
1,335 posts, read 3,298,328 times
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I start from the fourth paragraph in part 1, chapter 1

Quote:
I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.


I believe the equality of man, and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.


But, lest it should be supposed that I believe many other things in addition to these, I shall, in the progress of this work, declare the things I do not believe, and my reasons for not believing them.
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. My own mind is my own church.


All national 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.
I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe otherwise; they have the same right to their belief as I have to mine. But it is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.

Even if we put things in the perspective of time frame... he still didn't like them in 1794, and his later years in life.
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Old 10-01-2010, 11:36 AM
 
Location: CO
1,603 posts, read 3,536,938 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BigJon3475 View Post
They espoused free markets and "frugal" governments too. I don't suppose we need to define frugal for you. It's not the type of government you've found yourself indulged in in the past 2 years.


Frugal - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Or the previous 8 years before that, I might add.
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Old 10-01-2010, 11:50 AM
 
Location: PA
5,562 posts, read 5,674,125 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Zekester View Post
The primary leaders of the so-called founding fathers of our nation were not Bible-believing Christians; they were deists. Deism was a philosophical belief that was widely accepted by the colonial intelligentsia at the time of the American Revolution. Its major tenets included belief in human reason as a reliable means of solving social and political problems and belief in a supreme deity who created the universe to operate solely by natural laws. The supreme God of the Deists removed himself entirely from the universe after creating it. They believed that he assumed no control over it, exerted no influence on natural phenomena, and gave no supernatural revelation to man. A necessary consequence of these beliefs was a rejection of many doctrines central to the Christian religion. Deists did not believe in the virgin birth, divinity, or resurrection of Jesus, the efficacy of prayer, the miracles of the Bible, or even the divine inspiration of the Bible.

These beliefs were forcefully articulated by Thomas Paine in the "Age of Reason", a book that so outraged his contemporaries that he died rejected and despised by the nation that had once revered him as "the father of the American Revolution." To this day, many mistakenly consider him an atheist, even though he was an out spoken defender of the Deistic view of God. Other important founding fathers who espoused Deism were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Ethan Allen, James Madison, and James Monroe.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sourc...bdP6TOe94-WdEQ

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sourc...AQxc0amutAeYOQ

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sourc...GC-4pNQ2UI-5cg
All of this is possible but I believe some of them did follow some religions belief system. Does it really matter in the overall issues we have today? We have the constitution and the thousands of papers, letters and ideas of liberty that have formed a nation which supports religious freedom and freedom of speech be it christian or deism.

Christians should spend more time understanding the words of love and common sense and how it relates to Jesus Christ and worry less about which founding father was a Christian.
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Old 10-01-2010, 01:00 PM
 
42,732 posts, read 29,812,481 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LibertyandJusticeforAll View Post
All of this is possible but I believe some of them did follow some religions belief system. Does it really matter in the overall issues we have today? We have the constitution and the thousands of papers, letters and ideas of liberty that have formed a nation which supports religious freedom and freedom of speech be it christian or deism.

Christians should spend more time understanding the words of love and common sense and how it relates to Jesus Christ and worry less about which founding father was a Christian.
Deism is not atheism. Deism doesn't preclude belief, it includes belief.
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Old 10-04-2010, 02:29 PM
 
Location: CO
1,603 posts, read 3,536,938 times
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Seems to me too many are trying too hard to prove that the founding fathers believed in what they believe themselves. The most important concept here, I think, is the fact that the founding fathers believed in freedom to practice any religion as much or as little as we want, or none at all. And that one religion should not infringe upon our individual liberties when it comes to freedom of religion. Their main goal was for us all to come together as a nation, and not be divided by religion or differing religious views.

I'm sure it means something to Christians to be able to say that the founding fathers were Christian and promoted Christian beliefs. But it should mean just as much, if not more, to everyone that they made such a point to regard religious freedom so highly in our nation's founding documents. Seems to me that freedom is the common theme in our founding documents, not religion.
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