The Founding Fathers and Deism

Yes, Old Tom Paine completely missed the mark when it came to the rock-bottom realities underlying the population's motivations.

He was more like a French revolutionist which this country rejected.

1) Deism is not synonymous with atheist or agnostic
2) Jefferson didn’t believe that Jesus was the son of God and thought that the virgin birth was a myth. The quote from Jefferson was excerpted so as to destroy his meaning. I posted the entire quote previously. He didn’t think Jesus was anything more than a man; that is not a Christian, although he claimed to be a believer in his ‘philosophy’.

3) Thomas Paine’s belief? OK. He said...”there remains nothing of Genesis but an anonymous book of stories, fables, and traditionary or invented absurdities, or of downright lies. [Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason]” Hardly one to quote on the deep religious conviction of the Founders.

4) Sure none of the founders fit the STRAWMAN definition of Deist put forward; however Franklin said in his own autobiography that he was a “thorough Deist”.

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