Who exactly were the Founding Fathers in terms of religion and secularism etc?

MayCaesar

My understanding, from reading writings of Franklin, Hamilton, Washington and Jefferson is that they deeply believed in a secular state combined with religious morals in the society.

Note that secularism does not mean a-religiousness, but, rather, refers to stripping coercive power off religious institutions, making them purely private and a part of the free market. Which, in turn, implies lack of state religion, and equal treatment of all religions by the law.
Secularism can very well co-exist with a deeply religious society. The Founding Fathers believed that Christian morals are a good moral foundation for private individuals to follow and rigorously promoted those morals, but they were against enforcing them by using state apparatus.

Jefferson, Paine and Franklin were all open deists, meaning they believed in god, but did not believe that god had any effect on our Universe. Instead of promoting worship of god, they promoted the Enlightenment values of individual rights and ideological pluralism, which they saw as consistent with the most progressive interpretations of Christianity at the time.

They did not seem to believe in viability of atheism-based society, however, seeing it as necessarily leading to moral anarchy, followed by likely demolition of the basic republican institutes and subsequent rule of the mob, which is something they were afraid of more than even the possibility of restoration of monarchic rule in the US. This view is still widely held among American Christians, although its popularity seems to be weakening, as people become more and more disinterested in worldviews based on ancient mythologies and prefer to use logic and common sense instead.

RickeyD

The Bible and our Founders – the Revolutionary Bible

https://wallbuilders.com/aitken-bible-congress/

Excellent quotes from our Founders regarding faith (with references to the document’s containing the quotes)

https://www.thoughtco.com/christian-quotes-of-the-founding-fathers-700789

Our Founders on Jesus Christ as LORD (excellent) w/all references

https://wallbuilders.com/founding-fathers-jesus-christianity-bible/

The Bible and Government (excellent) from laws to slavery to our founding…Biblical Principles: Basis for America's Laws

http://www.faithfacts.org/christ-and-the-culture/the-bible-and-government

The Founders were NOT Deists

https://www.patheos.com/resources/additional-resources/2011/02/founding-fathers-were-not-deists-john-fea-02-02-2011

AlofRI

Many of our founders fled Europe to get away from religious persecution. They had NO intention of having it rear its ugly head here. A few quotes from them may give an insight into what they ACTUALLY thought'

James Madison: "Religious bondage shackles the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect."

Thomas Jefferson: "The Christian God is a being of terrific character …. cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust." (Kind of like the current occupier of the White House :-)

Jefferson again: "We discover, in the Gospels, a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstition, fanaticism and fabrication."

And again: "I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world and I do not find, in our particular superstition, Christianity, one redeeming feature. They are all alike, founded upon fables and mythologies."

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

John Adams (In a letter to Thomas Jefferson): "I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has produced, the cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!"

Thomas Paine: "Belief in a cruel god makes a cruel man."

Thomas Paine: "This book, the Bible, is to ridiculous even for criticism."

James Madison: "During 15 centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indulgence in clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity. In both, superstition, bigotry and persecution."

John Adams: " The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion. (From the Treaty of Tripoli)

This should give some idea of what the founders thought of religion … especially the Christian religion. The thought that they wanted this country to be controlled by ANY religion should be clear.

John_C_87

Many had been Quaker...

The people who had singed the United States Constitution had been a bit more divers and included Christains.

TKDB

@ZeusAres42

I like this new perspective for the website:

("Debra AI Civility." Now, comments are checked for civility before being posted. If an argument is found to be uncivil, it's not posted. This revolutionary feature will improve civility on DebateIsland. )

Dee

“The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”

—John Adams

Huffington Post 

How terribly ironic that the louder Christians protest against the excesses of Islam, the more they agitate for Christian excess.  We really need to stop this ridiculous argument about being a Christian nation.  If there should be any doubt, let us listen to the founding fathers themselves.  This from Thomas Jefferson in an April 11, 1823, letter to John Adams:  

The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus by the Supreme Being 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....

These are not the words of a man who wishes to establish a Christian theocracy.  Jefferson promoted tolerance above all and said earlier that his statute for religious freedom in Virginia was “meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mohammeden, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination.”  He specifically wished to avoid the dominance of a single religion.

Let us be perfectly clear:  We are not now, nor have we ever been, a Christian nation.  Our founding fathers explicitly and clearly excluded any reference to “God” or “the Almighty” or any euphemism for a higher power in the Constitution.  Not one time is the word “god” mentioned in our founding document.  Not one time.

Dee

@TKDB

You’re off topic ......Yet again 

TKDB

@Dee

@ZeusAres42

You're both from Europe right?

"Who exactly were the Founding Fathers in terms of religion and secularism etc?"

The question is in regards to U.S. History right?

It's more educational to read what individuals who aren't Americans, have to say and view American History through their individual question optics?

"I am interested in exactly what the United States was founded on as a nation. And in researching, I have come across all different kinds of information. According to an article written by Newt Gingrich (a former speaker of the US how of representatives) in the Washington Post the idea that the founding fathers wanted a secular nation is a myth. Then I come by more information "Published by the History Departments at The Ohio State University and Miami University." "

Dee

You’re making no sense ......as usual 

TKDB

@Dee

You're off topic.

Dee

@TKDB


You're off topic.

ZeusAres42

John_C_87 said:

Many had been Quaker...

The people who had singed the United States Constitution had been a bit more divers and included Christains.

I am recently aware of this. There were quite a few founding fathers apparently. However, as for their religious beliefs that is still debated, even amongst scholars who say that many of them actually seemed like Deists.