I'd always bought into the prevailing mythology that the Founding Fathers of the USA were all upstanding Christians in the sense that the term is understood by modern conservative Christians today, so I was astonished to learn that they weren't like that at all.
Many were Deists or strongly influenced by Deism. That term encompassed a range of beliefs, but if a Deist were to respond to this poll, they would tick, "I believe in God without religion." A Deist believes that a divine being brought the universe into existence, and then walked away. They don't believe in revealed truth, in prophecy or miracles, and thus they can't be called Christian in any sense. The philosophy developed as a result of rational, intelligent people looking at all the obvious bullshit peddled by religions and deciding it didn't make sense, but not quite being able to give up the idea of God as a First Cause.
They may have gone to church regularly, but that was probably because church attendance was as much a social networking thing in colonial times as a matter of personal religious observance. Washington, for example, attended church but refused to take communion, and many felt that indicated he was a Deist. It's also noticeable how many influential men of the time didn't use the term "God", but referred to "Divine Providence" or similar.
When people talk about the USA being founded on Christianity, what they're really referring to are the Pilgrims and other religious fanatics who buggered off across the Atlantic Ocean because sensible people in The Old Country got fed up with their nonsense and made life difficult for them.
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The Jefferson quote caught my eye.
I'd always bought into the prevailing mythology that the Founding Fathers of the USA were all upstanding Christians in the sense that the term is understood by modern conservative Christians today, so I was astonished to learn that they weren't like that at all.
Many were Deists or strongly influenced by Deism. That term encompassed a range of beliefs, but if a Deist were to respond to this poll, they would tick, "I believe in God without religion." A Deist believes that a divine being brought the universe into existence, and then walked away. They don't believe in revealed truth, in prophecy or miracles, and thus they can't be called Christian in any sense. The philosophy developed as a result of rational, intelligent people looking at all the obvious bullshit peddled by religions and deciding it didn't make sense, but not quite being able to give up the idea of God as a First Cause.
They may have gone to church regularly, but that was probably because church attendance was as much a social networking thing in colonial times as a matter of personal religious observance. Washington, for example, attended church but refused to take communion, and many felt that indicated he was a Deist. It's also noticeable how many influential men of the time didn't use the term "God", but referred to "Divine Providence" or similar.
When people talk about the USA being founded on Christianity, what they're really referring to are the Pilgrims and other religious fanatics who buggered off across the Atlantic Ocean because sensible people in The Old Country got fed up with their nonsense and made life difficult for them.
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HolyMoses
4 years ago
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Looks as if history be repeatin itself.