Was Thomas Jefferson a supporter of Athiesm?

[kshymkiw]

Thomas Jefferson once said the following:

Quote:Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.

What exactly do you think he is saying in this? To me it sounds like he is promoting the existence of God, saying that to question him is sound, while believing in him is blindfolded fear.

[travis]

Jefferson was certainly a strange one. You could have hours of discussions about the man's beliefs and still have no idea on where he stood. He had his own version of the bible which fit more inline with his deist beliefs. He did not believe in the miracles of Christ but did agree with his "philosophy". He was hostile towards the Catholic Church but was involved with the local Episcopal Church. He did identify himself as Christian but I would suspect that in this age he might be atheist.

I think you are probably on the right track with what he was thinking, if you blindly follow then you might fall into a pit. He was a strong thinker and wanted others to be as well.

[kshymkiw]

So could one not argue that this nation was NOT built on Christian beliefs? When you have one of the major framers of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence essentially saying believing in God is blindfolded fear.

[Chette]

(07-19-2012 10:51 AM)kshymkiw Wrote:  Thomas Jefferson once said the following:

Quote:Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.

What exactly do you think he is saying in this? To me it sounds like he is promoting the existence of God, saying that to question him is sound, while believing in him is blindfolded fear.

a single quote out of context is not sufficient enough to make a comment concerning what he meant.

But from what I know he was a Deist with Unitarian leanings.

[travis]

Since Jefferson was the main draftee to the Declaration of Independance along with four others and the fact that God appears in the first paragraph of one of the founding documents it shows us what type of men they were. Could you imagine anything like that being authored in a western nation today? I would certainly think not.
These men all seemed to believe in a creator
Franklin was raised Calvinist
Roger Shermin was a congregationalist
John Adams was a congregationalist
Jefferson was Deist
Robert R. Livingston - don't know
These men were influenced by Thomas Paine who was no fan of religion and charaterized himself as Deist.

These were all very intelligent men and they realized that if you said people had to believe in a particular god; such as, Allah, Yahweh, then that could be used as a tool to control the masses.

(07-20-2012 09:50 AM)kshymkiw Wrote:  So could one not argue that this nation was NOT built on Christian beliefs?

Yes, one could argue that but they would be wrong if they said it was NOT founded on judeo christian principles.

[Chin Music]

(07-20-2012 09:50 AM)kshymkiw Wrote:  So could one not argue that this nation was NOT built on Christian beliefs? When you have one of the major framers of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence essentially saying believing in God is blindfolded fear.

You may not understand that it is not the the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence framers that founded this country on Christian principals. Over 100 years before the birth of Thomas Jefferson God was moving many people here who were of Christian faith. It is God who sets the course of things not man. The following link is to a PBS documentary entitled "God in America". The first episode "A New Adam" (57 min) will be set during the 1600's long before Jefferson was even born (1743). The second episode "A New Eden" (56 min) will cover the period you refer to that includes Jefferson. I don't think Jefferson was a Christian and that hardly matters as this nation was set on it's Christian course long before his birth.

http://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/view/

[Viper_99]

(07-20-2012 09:50 AM)kshymkiw Wrote:  So could one not argue that this nation was NOT built on Christian beliefs? When you have one of the major framers of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence essentially saying believing in God is blindfolded fear.

Just by saying it was not built on Christian beliefs you acknowledge that is was.