Quotes from American Founding Fathers

Quotes from the American founding fathers about God, the Bible and
Christianity:

"The highest glory of the American Revolution was this - that it connected, in
one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of
Christianity." - John Quincy Adams

"The Bible is the cornerstone of liberty. A student's perusal of the sacred
volume will make him a better citizen, a better father, a better husband."
- Thomas Jefferson

"The Bible is the rock on which our Republic rests." - Andrew Jackson

"In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first
things in which all children, under a free government, ought to be instructed."
- Noah Webster

"We have staked the future of American civilization upon the capacity of each
and all of us to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."
- James Madison

"He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of primitive
Christianity will change the face of the world." - Benjamin Franklin

"It can not be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was
founded, not by religionists, but by Christians, not on religions but on the
gospel of Jesus Christ." - Patrick Henry

"The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and
His apostles...to this we owe our free constitutions of government."
- Noah Webster

"Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed the conviction
that these liberties are the gift of God?" - Thomas Jefferson

"Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of
Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly
implore His protection and favor." - George Washington

"Suppose a nation in some distant Region should take the Bible for their
only law book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts
there exhibited.... What a utopia, what a paradise would this region be."
- John Adams

"Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly
inadequate to the government of any other." - John Adams

http://swampbubbles.com/bubble/quotes-from-our-founding-fathers-god-and-america

Originally posted by RJHinds
Quotes from the American founding fathers about God, the Bible and
Christianity:

"The highest glory of the American Revolution was this - that it connected, in
one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of
Christianity." - John Quincy Adams

"The Bible is the cornerstone of liberty. A student's perusal of the sacre ...[text shortened]... wampbubbles.com/bubble/quotes-from-our-founding-fathers-god-and-america

you do realize that jefferson had personal 'edited' version of the bible, right? that he was an ardent deist and not a christian?

and that adams believed in nature's god?
here's an adams quote you neglected:

"The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity. Nowhere in the Gospels do we find a precept for Creeds, Confessions, Oaths, Doctrines, and whole cartloads of other foolish trumpery that we find in Christianity."

and how about these gems from james madison?
"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise."

"The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries."


franklin also a non-christian. probably a deist here as well.
"Lighthouses are more helpful than churches."

"The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason."

"If we look back into history for the character of the present sects in Christianity, we shall find few that have not in their turns been persecutors, and complainers of persecution. The primitive Christians thought persecution extremely wrong in the Pagans, but practiced it on one another. The first Protestants of the Church of England blamed persecution in the Romish Church, but practiced it upon the Puritans. They found it wrong in Bishops, but fell into the practice themselves both here (England) and in New England."


george washington was a superficial 'christian' at best, he never once mentions christ and there exist claims by his contemporaries that he was a non-believer.

lovely and accurate quote by thomas paine.

"Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half of the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind."

paine has many gems.

"Take away from Genesis the belief that Moses was the author, on which only the strange belief that it is the word of God has stood, and there remains nothing of Genesis but an anonymous book of stories, fables, and traditionary or invented absurdities, or of downright lies."

"We do not admit the authority of the church with respect to its pretended infallibility, its manufactured miracles, its setting itself up to forgive sins. It was by propagating that belief and supporting it with fire that she kept up her temporal power."

very astute observations.

"Dueling Banjos" is the official soundtrack for this thread.

Originally posted by VoidSpirit
you do realize that jefferson had personal 'edited' version of the bible, right? that he was an ardent deist and not a christian?

and that adams believed in nature's god?
here's an adams quote you neglected:

"The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity. Nowhere in the Gospels do we find a precept for Creeds, Confessions, Oaths, ...[text shortened]... fire that she kept up her temporal power."

very astute observations.

I see you provide no references. Why?

Originally posted by Suzianne
"Dueling Banjos" is the official soundtrack for this thread.

🙂 thumbs up!

Originally posted by Suzianne
"Dueling Banjos" is the official soundtrack for this thread.

And when you hear the banjos playing, start paddling for your life!! 😵

Great thread, RJH.

Just fact, after fact, after fact...

The only thing the detractors and skeptics can do is try to muddy the waters by adding other things to it. But nothing can be taken away from it, and the implications are clear as a bell.

Originally posted by RJHinds
I see you provide no references. Why?

i'm sure you're perfectly capable of using google, after all, you use it to find most of the nonsense you post.

Originally posted by sumydid
Great thread, RJH.

Just fact, after fact, after fact...

The only thing the detractors and skeptics can do is try to muddy the waters by adding other things to it. But nothing can be taken away from it, and the implications are clear as a bell.

yes sir. the implications are clear as bell: that leaders will tell the stupid masses whatever it is the stupid masses want to hear in order to get their votes and political support.

So you claim that our Founding Fathers were just a bunch of dishonest, power hungry politicians?

That couldn't be further from the truth.

I know this is no popularity contest, but you sure do insert a lot of bitterness into these threads.

Originally posted by sumydid
So you claim that our Founding Fathers were just a bunch of dishonest, power hungry politicians?

That couldn't be further from the truth.

I know this is no popularity contest, but you sure do insert a lot of bitterness into these threads.

you can believe what you want to believe. when it comes to 'politicians' we have their public claims and their private correspondence with each other. you've seen both sides of what they have had to say on the same topic. do the math. they told the public what the public wanted to hear, but privately they laughed at the public.

they may have had good intentions for the new country, but they knew what the majority of the people believed and they pandered to those beliefs, exploited them just like any other politician.

So we have conflicting quotes from politicians ....publicly saying how Christian they are and privately denying religion ... mmmmmmmm ... I wwonder which is their honest thoughts?

Originally posted by wolfgang59
So we have conflicting quotes from politicians ....publicly saying how Christian they are and privately denying religion ... mmmmmmmm ... I wwonder which is their honest thoughts?

you don't even have to go that far. that they rebelled against the ruling authority ... on account of taxes no less ... is proof that there was not a single christian among them.

Originally posted by VoidSpirit
yes sir. the implications are clear as bell: that leaders will tell the stupid masses whatever it is the stupid masses want to hear in order to get their votes and political support.

Sounds like most of the Democrats to me.

Originally posted by RJHinds
Quotes from the American founding fathers about God, the Bible and
Christianity:

"The highest glory of the American Revolution was this - that it connected, in
one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of
Christianity." - John Quincy Adams

"The Bible is the cornerstone of liberty. A student's perusal of the sacre ...[text shortened]... wampbubbles.com/bubble/quotes-from-our-founding-fathers-god-and-america

I'll take the bait -

"As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation. But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends, have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed?" John Adams in a letter to F.A. Van der Kamp, Dec. 27, 1816

"The question before the human race is, whether the God of Nature shall govern the world by his own laws, or whether priests and kings shall rule it by fictitious miracles?" - John Adams

"This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it." - John Adams

"And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But we may hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with all this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this the most venerated reformer of human errors." -- Jefferson's letter to John Adams, April 11 1823

"But while this syllabus is meant to place the character of Jesus in its true light, as no imposter himself, but a great reformer of the Hebrew code of religion, it is not to be understood that I am with him in all his doctrines. I am a materialist; he takes the side of spiritualism; he preaches the efficacy of repentance towards forgiveness of sin; I require a counterpoise of good works to redeem it." -- letter to William Short, April 13, 1820; Definition of a Materialist

"I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition (Christianity) one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology." - Thomas Jefferson.

"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State."
-letter to Danbury Baptist Association, CT "The Complete Jefferson" by Saul K. Padover, pp 518-519

I could go on and on. But it's time for breakfast. More can be found here -

http://freethought.mbdojo.com/foundingfathers.html