>>Justin Hasselman wrote:
>>Just for the record, almost (all) of the the pioneers, great thinkers, etc
>>of the world were either atheist, deist, agnostic, or >>one of the other
>>religions that encourage independent thought.


>Dori Zook replied:
>I won't go too far with this (for obvious reasons) but you raise a point
>that cracks me up.  Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and other >great
>Americans fit into the deist category.  They hardly whapped >people over
>the head with a Bible, but many Christians talk 'til the >cows come home
>about "the faith of our Founding Fathers".  To compare >our "founders" to
>the likes of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell is >laughable at best.  And
>thank God (pun itended, I suppose) THEY >weren't the ones who founded our
>nation!


You raise a good point.  As far as I recall (and anyone feel free to
correct
me if I'm wrong b/c I haven't had poly sci since highschool), the
first 4 or
5 presidents were deists.  And the overwhelming majority of the
primary
framers of the Constitution were all deists.

The Christian Coalition, Moral Majority, Council of Conservative
Citizens,
etc all claim that this country was founded upon Christian beliefs.
George
Washington stated at the Treaty of Tripoli (around 1750??) that this
nation
was not, in any sense, founded upon the Christian religion [I forgot
his
exact quote, but it was something along those lines].

Justin Hasselman