"Deism In America"

"Deism existed as a major religious movement for only a few decades. Yet it played its role in shaping history--for most of the fathers of the United States were deists, and both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution shows its impact. 

Thomas Jefferson, for example, was well-read in such authors as Bolingbroke, Hume and Voltaire, and indeed described himself as an Epicurean, after the ancient philosopher who denied the reality of any supernatural world, including the traditional gods and religious ceremonies. And indeed, Jefferson shared the deistic belief that true Christianity is about rational morality, rather than outmoded metaphysics. In 1804, while president of the United States, he found the time to publish The Life and Morals of Jesus , also known as the 'Jefferson Bible' since it was an edited version of the Gospels consisting of ethics and parables with all the miracles removed. In 1787, he wrote in a letter to his nephew:

Your own reason is the only oracle given you by heaven, and you are answerable not for the rightness but uprightness of the decision. 

It was Jefferson who, in 1776, drafted the Declaration of Independence, together with John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. Franklin, when not flying kites in thunderstorms, was a prominent Freemason [http://www.whatisfreemasonry.com/], and a friend of Thomas Paine, and in a letter written in 1790, the year of his death, expressed his admiration for the morality taught by Christ but his doubts regarding his divinity. Adams was a deist too, and was particularly opposed to the notion of church tradition and authority; he and Jefferson both rejected the doctrine of the Trinity. Indeed, Jefferson hoped that unitarianism would, within a generation, become the universal religion of the United States."

- Jonathan Hill

from: http://www.amazon.com/Faith-Age-Reason-Enlightenment-Histories/dp/0745951309/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371272311&sr=8-1&keywords=faith+in+the+age+of+reason

"Because, unlike Christian theism, there is no orthodox deism, each deist is free to use reason, intuition, tradition, or whatever squares with his or her view of ultimate reality. Deists' core commitments will thus reflect their personal passions or, in common parlance, what turns them on--the flourishing of their individual personal life, their family life, public life. Early deists such as Franklin and Jefferson took public welfare as a key commitment. Others like Paine combined their commitment to public life with a passion for their own personal freedom (and the freedom of everyone in the commonwealth) from the dictates of religion. But the more a deist becomes divorced from allegiance to a personal God, the less religious mores and traditional goals characterize their core commitments. As a result, societies themselves become more pluralistic and less socially cohesive. Thus the tie between deism as a worldview and freedom as a personal and social goal inspired the bloody violence of the French Revolution and spurred on the development of democracy and eventually the vast cultural diversification of American society. Each year the Western World, especially America, becomes more pluralistic than the year before."

- James W. Sire

from: http://www.amazon.com/Universe-Next-Door-Worldview-Catalog/dp/0830838503/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1371272917&sr=1-1&keywords=the+universe+next+door+5th+edition

There is a lot to say about how much we have been and still are affected by the beliefs of the Founding Fathers, and the thinkers that influenced them which I won't go into quite yet (it would require a much longer essay than I want to get into at this time). I would pose, however, that much of it is a lot more negative and insidious than many people would like to admit. As Christians, it is extremely important that we pay attention to history and the worldviews that we are surrounded by in our respective countries. It seems like a lot of people I've come into contact with spend more time looking at the problems with other countries' religions and worldviews rather than our own. Maybe it's easier to see the issues and holes in beliefs outside of our own societies? Either way, where we grow up, the history that we do or do not pay attention to, all affects us and how we think, and most importantly, how we view God. In much of the reading and studying I've been doing over the passed couple of years, I keep getting more glimpses of how Deism is still alive and well in our society, and how it damages peoples' relationship with Jesus. I would encourage everyone to examine their own beliefs, their views of God carefully and compare them to what the Bible says about Him. I know that the Holy Spirit has done a lot of work in my own life over the passed couple of years to show me where I've swallowed the pervading lies in this society about who God is and about His character. And in doing that, I've seen where Deism has actually affected my mind and how I relate to God too. From experience, I have to say it's much better seeing a lie for what it is, than choosing to hold onto it to remain comfortable.