Were the Founding Fathers (U.S.A.) atheists or agnostics?
I am assuming that you mean the constitution, bill of rights and all of the amendments when you refer to the time period of being “drawn up.” Last I checked the bill of rights was amended as late as the twentieth century. In original drafts of the founding documents, there were xian references. Those did NOT make it into the final documents. The references to a god obviously did, but only in the declaration of independence. Among the founders, there were ardent xians just as there were ardent deists and atheists. There was a firm conviction however that while it was okay to acknowledge and thank god, it was not okay for the government to force specific religion on people. That was one of the things that we were trying to escape from. After all if everyone agreed on a specific religion there would have been no need for a “free exercise” clause in the constitution, would there?
Most were very evangelical Christians. Which is NOT the same as saying they were ‘uninfluenced’ by the prevalent Deistic thought of their era! Just read the Founding Fathers themselves, and you will see that in their Committees of Correspondence, they quote the Bible more than all other sources combined, and three times as much as they quote any other single source! Although Franklin was certainly a Deist as a young man, in his later years, he made very ‘undeistic’ statements about God having an intense interest and activity ‘in the affairs of men.’ There’s far too much revisionism of the Founders being written now, taking one little quote here or there to make them sound like committed Deists. If you read them thoroughly, you will find most were quite Christian in their faith.
Many Founding Fathers were Deists who say a god created the universe so that it can operate alone, and he takes no further part in it. Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin and Paine are among the Deists. Jefferson became an Atheist, as did some other Deists. His letters prove that, and his enemies accused him of being one. Jefferson told his nephew in a letter to study the Bible critically and objectively and that he might well conclude that there is no God. Adams agreed with the Treaty of Tripoli that said the USA’s government was not founded upon Christianity in any manner. Washington saw that God and Christianity were not mentioned in the Constitution. A Creator is mentioned, but it was the Deist one. A motion to mention Jesus in the Declaration of Independence was rrejected by the majority present.
Some were various denominations of Christian, some deists, some were likely agnostics and/or atheists but it was not acceptable at the time, so they kept quiet about it. The Constitution has a lot to do with religion – with the freedom of ALL to practice their religion and with government not interfering in religion or promoting a state religion. These are important freedoms we still cherish today.
