Jefferson, Paine, Franklin ..... Deists??? Not so fast. While these men were non-conventional in their beliefs I don't believe they were "Deists." Jefferson called himself a "Christian." Paine believed in an afterlife. Franklin, regardless of his lustful youth, called for prayer at the Constitutional Convention. These are not the actions of Deists! Jefferson was a member of a Bible society and sought to promote the Gospel. He attended church in the capitol. The vast majority of the founders operated within the bounds of a Christian consensus. That consensus produced the Declaration of Independence, a very non-deist document. Both Paine and Jefferson were attacted for being less than Christian but were they Deists?? Lets see some evidence.
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Jefforson (author of Treaty of Tripoli) said: "In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot ... they have perverted the purest religion ever preached to man into mystery and jargon, unintelligible to all mankind, and therefore the safer engine for their purpose." - March 17, 1814
Deist means that they believe in God and afterlife, but who are not attached to any church and don't respond, therefore, for the doctrine and the mores there. And believing in an afterlife doesn't make you Christian. Buddist, Muslims and Jewish do.
Least informed of anothers religion award?
Evidence? Jefferson Library on line at UVA. Look up Franklin at the Library of Congress(by the way, he wasn't a deist, He founded an "agnostic society") and almost anything on Thomas Paine(who became an atheist).PS I would like evidence that you work for a library. All the real librarians I know would have already looked this up this before making themselves sound like an idiot by speaking incorrectly on things that they haven't researched.
"History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaini8ng a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance, of which their political as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purpose."
This is only gonna get worse, at least down South where this "Christian foundation, Christian Founding Fathers, Everyone in America was Christian then" nonsense has been repeated for years.
Since they have no evidence for this and historical records actually prove the opposite, they've decided lieing a little is not enough anymore so they must lie harder and more often. They're dismissing the established history books and all them needling facts they contain and gone full fictional substitute.
They've had lots of lieing figureheads for years but now they've got a guy that's compiled all the lies and piled more lies on. His name is David Barton, his books are condemned by historiacal consensus and facts, his lies have been exposed and his research methodoligy doesn't exist. He has no Historian education and violates all rules of professionalism by not providing evidence for events or quotes. He makes it all up.
His books have been introduced as the history textbook in many redstate charter (read: Fundamentalist Christian)schools.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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