SHOULD America be a Christian nation?

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rainacorn

Guest
#101
#101
FSUBoy966 said:
Benjamin Franklin was an outspoken atheist, and several of the founding fathers were Masons. They wanted to be free from religious tyranny, which is what America would become under the rule of ANY religion.
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I'll go ahead and take this bait.

I know atheists like to name Benjamin Franklin as 'one of them', but I've never read anything in his writings that said he didn't believe in God. He did write a couple times about his distaste for organized religion, however that is not the same thing as not believing in God at all. Someone who asks for a divine intervention at the Constitutional Convention seems more likely to be a deist of some kind rather than an atheist. Not to mention the letters he wrote to atheist writers trying to dissuade them from circulating their views saying it would do more harm than good.

There isn't a smoking gun here or whatever... the only thing about Franklin's religious views that we know definitively is that they changed over time. As he matured and got older and became more educated and read more books, his views changed, away from religion and then back to it. At times he comes off as very 'hot' in regards to religion, other times a bit colder, but I have never seen anything from Franklin that says 'I don't believe there is a God.'
 
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TheGrungeDiva

Guest
#102
#102
rainacorn said:
I'll go ahead and take this bait.

I know atheists like to name Benjamin Franklin as 'one of them', but I've never read anything in his writings that said he didn't believe in God. He did write a couple times about his distaste for organized religion, however that is not the same thing as not believing in God at all. Someone who asks for a divine intervention at the Constitutional Convention seems more likely to be a deist of some kind rather than an atheist. Not to mention the letters he wrote to atheist writers trying to dissuade them from circulating their views saying it would do more harm than good.

There isn't a smoking gun here or whatever... the only thing about Franklin's religious views that we know definitively is that they changed over time. As he matured and got older and became more educated and read more books, his views changed, away from religion and then back to it. At times he comes off as very 'hot' in regards to religion, other times a bit colder, but I have never seen anything from Franklin that says 'I don't believe there is a God.'
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I have to agree with rainacorn here. Everything I have written, 1st and 2nd sources of BF, indicate that he was never further away from God than "agnostic." Now, I am glad to hear rainacorn admit that he wasn't a Christian. I think that part is important.
 
M

MissCris

Guest
#103
#103
TheGrungeDiva said:
It has nothing to do with accountability.
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It does have a lot to do with accountability- at least as far as I can tell, judging from my own experience in the world.

Nobody wants to feel guilty. And I can understand why, because it's uncomfortable to feel that way. And so, over the years, the general population of America has found ways to work God out of the equation as much as possible, and I think it was in the hope that they would have no higher power than themselves to answer to in the end.

As far as a Christian nation goes, I think it would be one that OVER ALL believes in God, believes in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and believes that salvation comes only through Him. It has nothing to do with changing all of the existing laws, and it has nothing to do with which denomination or branch of Christianity we'd want ruling the country- in fact, I don't think we SHOULD force that on anyone, as God Himself has given us all the right to choose. BUT, I do feel that as far as religion, faith, and even basic morality go, America has fallen a long way from where the founding fathers MEANT for this country to be.

So SHOULD we be a Christian nation?

That's like asking, SHOULD people believe in God?

Yes, they SHOULD, but it's a matter of WILL they? No, probably not, in many cases. Just like in America, WILL we be a Christian nation? Not likely. The majority of the people don't want it, or we would have STAYED a Christian nation to begin with.
 
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