BitYakin
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quote:
ORIGINAL: DomKen
quote:
ORIGINAL: chatterbox24
I said based on GOD not religion. There is a huge difference. If you read the constitution there are some key words through out the document that might give you a clue. I see them do you? You don't have to see them, you know and you don't have to believe. As I said in the other thread, one can deny God, but it really wouldn't be fair would it, if it wasn't brought to your attention and had a blind eye? Believe how you wish, no one makes a person believe.
MIght I add, that I used puritan as a coined word, I meant Christianity. Was John Hancock a Christian? Was his father a minister?
You're still wrong. Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration and was greatly influential in the writing of the Constitution, did not believe in a god in any conventional sense. He certainly did not believe in the Christian deities. He rewrote the new testament by removing all the "miracles," all references to the "resurrection" and all claims of divinity by Jesus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Bible
The other leaders were men of the enlightenment and belief in any sort of deity was not something that united or drove them. They conformed to the norms of the period but many were copious letter writes and those surviving letters depict men who thought a great deal and spent very little thought for the supernatural.
well its not true at all, to say "did not believe in a god in any conventional sense"
Although Jefferson's specific denominational and congregational ties were limited in his adulthood and his ever-evolving theological beliefs were distinctively his own, he was without a doubt a Protestant. One should keep in mind that despite his later self-stated non-affiliation with any specific denomination, he was raised as an Episcopalian, attended Episcopalian services many times as an adult and as President, and he expressed a clear affinity for Unitarianism. However these denominations may be classified now, uring Jefferson's lifetime, the Episcopal Church and the Unitarian Church were both considered to be Protestant denominations.
as far as christianity goes...
President Thomas Jefferson was a Protestant. Jefferson was raised as an Episcopalian (Anglican). He was also influenced by English Deists and has often been identified by historians as a Deist. He held many beliefs in common with Unitarians of the time period, and sometimes wrote that he thought the whole country would become Unitarian. He wrote that the teachings of Jesus contain the "outlines of a system of the most sublime morality which has ever fallen from the lips of man." Wrote: "I am of a sect by myself, as far as I know."
Jefferson was never a member of the Unitarian denomination nor was he ever active in a Unitarian congregation. However, he did once write that he would have liked to be a member of a Unitarian church, but he was not because there were no Unitarian churches in Virginia. It is not unreasonable to identify Jefferson as a Unitarian (with the caveat that, technically speaking, he was not actually one). However, it is a mistake to extrapolate from Jefferson's stated admiration for Unitarianism the notion that he was somehow "un-Christian" or "non-Christian." It is true that contemporary Unitarian-Universalists now classify their denomination as a distinct religion not confined as a subset of Christianity (although a large proportion of individual Unitarian-Universalists do indeed identify themselves as Christians). However, in Jefferson's day, Unitarianism was considerably different from its present form, and there was no concept that it was a non-Christian religion. Unitarianism in Jefferson's time was regarded as one liberal Protestant denomination among many other Protestant denominations extant in America. Virtually nobody thought of Jefferson as a non-Christian (or even non-Protestant) president.
futhermore
In a practical sense, classifying Jefferson as a "Deist" with regards to religious affiliation is misleading and meaningless. Jefferson was never affiliated with any organized Deist movement. This is a word that describes a theological position more than an actual religious affiliation, and as such it is of limited use from a sociological perspective. If one defines the term "Deist" broadly enough, then the writing of nearly every U.S. president or prominent historical figure could be used to classify them as a "Deist," so classifying people as such without at least some evidence of nominal self-identification is not very useful.
Adherents of other religious groups, including atheists and agnostics, also point to various writings of Jefferson which are in harmony with their positions. The difficulty in classifying Jefferson using a single word for religious affiliation does not stem from a lack of information, but rather a wealth of writing -- which can be interpreted differently depending on a person's perspective. Jefferson left a considerable amount of writing on political and philosophical issues, as well as writing about religion, including the "Jefferson Bible."
http://www.adherents.com/people/pj/Thomas_Jefferson.html
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RE: The US Constitution is not based on religion - 
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