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Pennington · 07-22-2003, 04:13 PM

Many, many of the founding fathers called themselves Deists, or freethinkers. If you would like, I could look up the quotes themselves, but its pretty much an established fact. The posted article is obviously defending the phrase"under god" and "in god we trust" by saying that the founding fathers were Christians or at least theists.

de·ism
n.

The belief, based solely on reason, in a God who created the universe and then abandoned it, assuming no control over life, exerting no influence on natural phenomena, and giving no supernatural revelation.

Key word here is abandoned. Deist are very much like atheists except that they use divine force in the creation of the universe. They see god as having no effect on worldly affairs and would be opposed to anything like "in god we trust" simply because of that. Why trust in god if you don't believe he is or can do anything or if he even exists any more.

[edit] - As for the Declaration of Independence or any other papers drafted by Congress, you'll see that they put large emphasis on the rights men have because they were created by a creator or nature's god. I fail to see how this doesn't include atheism and evolution. I certianly see my creator as evolution and nature's god as evolution. They specificly avoid the phrase God because they didn't believe in him in the traditional sense.

07-22-2003, 04:13 PM	#37 (permalink)
Pennington Banned Location: Autonomous Zone	Many, many of the founding fathers called themselves Deists, or freethinkers. If you would like, I could look up the quotes themselves, but its pretty much an established fact. The posted article is obviously defending the phrase"under god" and "in god we trust" by saying that the founding fathers were Christians or at least theists. de·ism n. The belief, based solely on reason, in a God who created the universe and then abandoned it, assuming no control over life, exerting no influence on natural phenomena, and giving no supernatural revelation. Key word here is abandoned. Deist are very much like atheists except that they use divine force in the creation of the universe. They see god as having no effect on worldly affairs and would be opposed to anything like "in god we trust" simply because of that. Why trust in god if you don't believe he is or can do anything or if he even exists any more. [edit] - As for the Declaration of Independence or any other papers drafted by Congress, you'll see that they put large emphasis on the rights men have because they were created by a creator or nature's god. I fail to see how this doesn't include atheism and evolution. I certianly see my creator as evolution and nature's god as evolution. They specificly avoid the phrase God because they didn't believe in him in the traditional sense. Last edited by Pennington; 07-22-2003 at 04:21 PM..