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