https://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=7&article=1654
Deism, Atheism, and the Founders
The standard claim by those who wish to minimize the role that
Christianity has played in the establishment and propagation of American
civilization is that the architects of American political institutions
were deists and atheists who did not subscribe to religion in general or
Christianity in particular. It is further claimed that they insisted
that religion be confined to private life, excluded from public life,
i.e., public schools and government. Of course, abundant proof exists to
refute this outrageous, though widely believed, claim. But one must go
back to the original documents—not history books written in the last
fifty years—to allow the Founders to speak for themselves.
Were the Founders “deists”? A standard dictionary definition of the
word is: “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” (
American Heritage..., 2000, p. 479). One would be
hard-pressed to identify a Founder that fits this description. Indeed,
the writings of the Founders are replete with their belief in and
promotion of the Christian religion in its enlarged sense. Even Thomas
Jefferson, who probably questioned the deity of Christ, nevertheless
advocated and defended true Christianity. In a letter to Dr. Benjamin
Rush on April 21, 1803, he wrote:
Dear Sir, In some of the delightful conversations with you, in the
evenings of 1798-99, and which served as an anodyne to the afflictions
of the crisis through which our country was then laboring, the Christian
religion was sometimes our topic; and I then promised you, that one day
or other, I would give you my views of it. They are the result of a
life of inquiry & reflection, and very different from that anti-Christian system imputed to me by those who know nothing of my opinions. To the corruptions of Christianity I am indeed opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian, in the only sense he wished any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines, in preference to all others (“The Thomas Jefferson Papers...,” n.d., emp. added).
Among the small handful of those who were not particularly whetted to
the Christian religion, Thomas Paine is conspicuous, especially in his
production of
Age of Reason. Though he challenged the
inspiration of the Bible, denounced the formal world religions,
including the perversions of Christianity that were in abundance, and
opposed the promotion of any
national church or religion, nevertheless
he was not an atheist.
He claimed to believe in God and afterlife: “I believe in one God, and
no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life” (1794). He also
wrote: “Were man impressed as fully and as strongly as he ought to be
with the belief of a God, his moral life would be regulated by the force
of that belief; he would stand in awe of God and of himself, and would
not do the thing that could not be concealed from either” (1794). Paine
not only believed in “the certainty of his existence and the
immutability of his power,” he asserted that “it is the fool only, and
not the philosopher, or even the prudent man, that would live as if
there were no God.” In fact, he stated that it is “rational to believe”
that God would call all people “to account for the manner in which we
have lived here” (1794).
Nevertheless, Paine styled himself a “deist” and hurled some rather
uncomplimentary epithets against the Christian religion. But the real
issue—one that has been largely ignored by the revisionist historians of
the last fifty years—is whether Paine’s views were
representative
of the Founders and the citizenry of America at the time. The
historical record proves that they were not. In fact, Paine’s production
of
Age of Reason nearly two decades after the
Declaration of Independence
drew heavy fire from several of the Founders who expressed strong
aversion to Paine’s ideas in no uncertain terms. Consider the following
examples.
John Adams played a central role in the birth of our nation, as
evidenced by a string of significant participatory activities, including
delegate to the Continental Congress (1774-1777) where he signed the
Declaration of Independence,
signer of the peace treaty that ended the American Revolution (1783),
two-time Vice-President under George Washington (1789-1797), and second
President of the United States (1797-1801). Yet, Adams’ sentiments
regarding Paine’s writing were, to say the least, blunt: “The Christian
religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in
ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity and
humanity, let the Blackguard Paine say what he will” (3:421, 1856).
“Blackguard” was an 18th century term for a thoroughly unprincipled
person—a scoundrel.
Zephaniah Swift, who was a member of the U.S. Congress from 1793-1797, offered a strong reaction to Paine:
[W]e cannot sufficiently reprobate the beliefs of Thomas Paine in his attack on Christianity by publishing his Age of Reason....
He has the impudence and effrontery to address to the citizens of the
United States of America a paltry performance which is intended to shake
their faith in the religion of their fathers.... No language can
describe the wickedness of the man who will attempt to subvert a
religion which is a source of comfort and consolation to its votaries
merely for the purpose of eradicating all sentiments of religion (1796,
2:323-324).
John Jay was another brilliant Founder with a long and distinguished
career in the formation and shaping of American civilization from the
beginning. He not only was a member of the Continental Congress from
1774-1776, serving as President from 1778-1779, he also helped to frame
the New York State Constitution and then served as the Chief Justice of
the New York Supreme Court. He co-authored the Federalist Papers, was
appointed as the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court by George
Washington (1789-1795), served as Governor of New York (1795-1801), and
was the vice-president of the American Bible Society (1816-1821). In a
letter dated February 14, 1796, he affirmed:
I have long been of the opinion that the evidence of the truth of
Christianity requires only to be carefully examined to produce
conviction in candid minds, and I think they who undertake that task
will derive advantages.... As to The Age of Reason, it never appeared to
me to have been written from a disinterested love of truth or of
mankind (Jay, 1833, 2:266).
Several of the Founders were severe in their denunciations of Paine.
John Witherspoon, member of the Continental Congress (1776-1782) and
signer of the
Declaration of Independence, insisted that Paine
was “ignorant of human nature as well as an enemy to the Christian
faith” (1802, 3:24). Another signer of the
Declaration, Charles
Carroll, pronounced Paine’s work as “blasphemous writings against the
Christian religion” (as quoted in Gurn, 1932, p. 203). Yet another
Declaration signer, Benjamin Rush, called
The Age of Reason “absurd and impious” (1951, 2:770). William Paterson, signer of the federal
Constitution
and U.S. Supreme Court justice appointed by George Washington, became
so indignant over those few Americans who seemed to agree with Paine,
that he declared: “Infatuated Americans, why renounce your country, your
religion, and your God? Oh shame, where is thy blush? Is this the way
to continue independent, and to render the 4th of July immortal in
memory and song?” (as quoted in O’Conner, 1979, p. 244). [
NOTE: Observe that Paterson believed that independence
depended on loyalty to the Christian religion and God.] In a similar vein, John Quincy Adams, referring to Paine’s
Rights of Man,
insisted that “Mr. Paine has departed altogether from the principles of
the Revolution” (1793, p. 13). Patrick Henry asked: “What is there in
the wit, or wisdom of the present deistical writers or professors…? And
yet these have been confuted, and their fame decaying; in so much that
the puny efforts of Paine are thrown in,
to prop their tottering fabric, whose foundations cannot stand the test
of time” (as quoted in Wirt, 1817, pp. 386-387, emp. added; cf. Arnold,
1854, p. 250), and the President of the Continental Congress, Elias
Boudinot, published
The Age of Revelation in direct rebuttal to
The Age of Reason (1801).
Even Benjamin Franklin, one of the least religious of the Founding
Fathers, though a longtime friend of Paine, viewed Paine’s thinking with
great disfavor, as evidenced by Franklin's critique of a previous
manuscript written by Paine:
I have read your Manuscript with some Attention. By the Arguments it
contains against the Doctrine of a particular Providence, tho’ you allow
a general Providence, you strike at the Foundation of all Religion: For
without the Belief of a Providence that takes Cognizance of, guards and
guides and may favour particular Persons, there is no Motive to Worship
a Deity, to fear its Displeasure, or to pray for its Protection. I will
not enter into any Discussion of your Principles, tho’ you seem to
desire it; At present I shall only give you my Opinion that tho’ your
Reasonings are subtle, and may prevail with some Readers, you will not
succeed so as to change the general Sentiments of Mankind on that
Subject, and the Consequence of printing this Piece will be a
great deal of Odium drawn upon your self, Mischief to you and no Benefit
to others. He that spits against the Wind, spits in his own Face. But were you to succeed, do you imagine any Good would be done by it?....
I would advise you therefore not to attempt unchaining the Tyger, but
to burn this Piece before it is seen by any other Person, whereby you
will save yourself a great deal of Mortification from the Enemies it may
raise against you, and perhaps a good deal of Regret and Repentance. If Men are so wicked as we now see them with Religion what would they be if without it? I intend this Letter itself as a Proof of my Friendship.... (1840, 10:281-282, emp. added).
Sadly, friendless and shunned due to his irreligious views, Thomas
Paine died in Greenwich Village, New York City, on June 8, 1809. At the
time of his death, most U.S. newspapers reprinted the obituary notice
from the
New York Citizen, which read in part: “He had lived
long, did some good and much harm.” Only six mourners came to his
funeral (“Thomas Paine,” n.d.).
The overwhelming majority of the Founders and the bulk of the American
population at the beginning of our nation held strong convictions
regarding the primacy of the Christian religion over all other religions
(as well as no religion at all). What a change has come over the
country. God has blessed America in the past—undoubtedly due to the
willingness of the Founders and the citizenry to acknowledge Him as the
one true God and Author of the one true religion. Now that so many are
rejecting the one true God, while accommodating false religions and
ideologies, we can well expect that the bestowal of God’s blessings on
our national well-being will come to an end. In the words of George
Washington:
I am sure there never was a people who had more reason to acknowledge a
Divine interposition in their affairs than those of the United States;
and I should be pained to believe that they have forgotten that Agency
which was so often manifested during our revolution, or that they failed
to consider the omnipotence of that God who is alone able to protect
them (1838, 10:222-223).
The psalmist was even plainer: “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Psalm 9:17).
REFERENCES
Adams, John (1856),
The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, ed. Charles Adams (Boston, MA: Little, Brown, & Co.).
Adams, John Quincy (1793),
An Answer to Pain’s [sic]
“Rights of Man” (London: John Stockdale).
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin), fourth edition.
Arnold, S.G. (1854),
The Life of Patrick Henry of Virginia (Buffalo, NY: Miller, Orton, & Mulligan).
Boudinot, Elias (1801),
The Age of Revelation, or, The Age of Reason Shewn To Be An Age of Infidelity (Philadelphia, PA: Asbury Dickins).
Franklin, Benjamin (1840),
The Works of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Jared Sparks (Boston, MA: Tappan, Whittemore, & Mason).
Gurn, Joseph (1932),
Charles Carroll of Carrolton (New York: P.J. Kennedy & Sons).
Jay, William (1833),
The Life of John Jay (New York: J.&J. Harper).
O’Connor, John (1979),
William Paterson: Lawyer and Statesman (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press).
Paine, Thomas (1794),
Age of Reason, [On-line],
URL: http://www.ushistory.org/paine/reason/singlehtml.htm.
Rush, Benjamin (1951),
Letters of Benjamin Rush, ed. L.H. Butterfield (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).
Swift, Zephaniah (1796),
A System of Laws of the State of Connecticut (Windham, CT: John Byrne).
“The Thomas Jefferson Papers Series 1. General Correspondence. 1651-1827” (no date),
Library of Congress, [On-line],
URL:
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mtj1&fileName=mtj1page028.db&
recNum=190&itemLink=%2Fammem%2Fcollections%2Fjefferson_papers%2Fmtjser1.
html&linkText=6.
“Thomas Paine” (no date),
Wikipedia, [On-line],
URL:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine.
Washington, George (1838),
The Writings of George Washington, ed. Jared Sparks (Boston, MA: Ferdinand Andrews).
Wirt, William (1817),
Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry (Philadelphia, PA: James Webster).
Witherspoon, John (1802),
The Works of Reverend John Witherspoon (Philadelphia, PA: William Woodard).
