Christianity From Founding Fathers Quotes - Page 2

• If we look back into history for the character of the present sects in Christianity, we shall find few that have not in their turns been persecutors, and complainers of persecution. The primitive Christians thought persecution extremely wrong in the Pagans, but practised it on one another.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Christian, Character, Practice

  "The Works of Benjamin Franklin".

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• The Christian church has set up a religion of pomp and revenue in pretended imitation of a person (Jesus) who lived a life of poverty.

  Thomas Paine

  Christian, Jesus, Church

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• I verily believe Christianity necessary to the support of civil society. One of the beautiful boasts of our municipal jurisprudence is that Christianity is a part of the Common Law... There never has been a period in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying its foundations.

  Joseph Story

  Beautiful, Lying, Believe

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• It is the duty of every true Deist to vindicate the moral justice of God against the evils of the Bible.

  Thomas Paine

  Justice Of God, Evil, Moral

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• When, in short, we shall have unlearned everything which has been taught since his [Jesus'] day, and got back to the pure and simple doctrines he inculcated, we shall then be truly and worthily his disciples: and my opinion is that if nothing had ever been added to what flowed purely from his lips, the whole world would at this day have been Christian.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Christian, Jesus, Simple

  Thomas Jefferson (2004). “Light and Liberty: Reflections on the Pursuit of Happiness”, p.35, Modern Library

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• We profess to be republicans, and yet we neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government; that is, the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible; for this divine book, above all others, favors that equality among mankind, that respect for just laws, and all those sober and frugal virtues which constitute the soul of republicanism.

  Benjamin Rush

  Book, Mean, Government

  Benjamin Rush (1988). “Essays: Literary, Moral and Philosophical”, Union College

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• It is the fable of Jesus Christ, as told in the New Testament, and the wild and visionary doctrine raised thereon, against which I contend. The story, taking it as it is told, is blasphemously obscene.

  Thomas Paine

  Religious, Jesus, Father

  Thomas Paine (1875). “The Age of Reason: Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology”, p.154

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• To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoys.... Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all blessings which flow from them, must fall with them.

  Jedidiah Morse

  Fall, Blessing, Government

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• Preachers dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Faith Religion, Daylight, Witch

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• [All religious sects] dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight; and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subversion of the duperies in which they live.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Faith Religion, Daylight

  Thomas Jefferson (1964). “The Jefferson Bible: With the Annotated Commentaries on Religion of Thomas Jefferson”

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• Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects?

  James Madison

  Christian, Atheist, Religion

  "Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments" (1785)

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• The human understanding is a revelation from its maker, which can never be disputed or doubted. There can be no scepticism, Pyrrhonism, or incredulity or infidelity here. No prophecies, no miracles are necessary to prove this celestical communication. This revelation has made it certain that two and one make three, and that one is not three nor can three be one. We can never be so certain of any prophecy, or the fulfilment of any prophecy, or of any miracle, or the design of any miracle, as we are from the revelation of nature, that is, nature's God, that two and two are equal to four.

  John Adams

  Communication, Two, Miracle

  John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1856). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.66

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• I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Atheist, Religion, President

  "Christianity: the One, the Many: What Christianity Might Have Been and Could Still Become, Volume 1". Book by John F. Nash (p. 11), February 14, 2008.

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• Have you considered that system of holy lies and pious frauds that has raged and triumphed for 1,500 years?

  John Adams

  Lying, Years, Founding Fathers Religion

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• I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world and do not find in our particular superstition [Christianity] one redeeming feature.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Death, Wisdom, Religious

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• Religions are all alike- founded upon fables and mythologies.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Atheist, Secular Society

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• Christianity is part of the Common Law of England.

  Matthew Hale

  Christian, Law, England

  In 'Historia Placitorum Coronae' (ed. Sollom Emlyn, 1736)

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• ...It would be more consistent that we call [the Bible] the work of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind.

  Thomas Paine

  Atheist, Faith Religion, Atheism

  Thomas Paine “The Writings of Thomas Paine”, Jazzybee Verlag

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• Rogueries, absurdities and untruths were perpetrated upon the teachings of Jesus by a large band of dupes and importers led by Paul, the first great corrupter of the teaching of Jesus.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Jesus, Teaching, Firsts

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• I believe ... that the soul of man is immortal and will be treated with justice in another life, respecting its conduct in this.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Karma, Believe, Men

  Benjamin Franklin, William Temple Franklin (1818). “Memoirs of the life and writings of Benjamin Franklin ...”, p.131, Printed for H. Colborn

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• Rulers who wished to subvert the public liberty, may have found an established Clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just Government instituted to secure & perpetuate it needs them not.

  James Madison

  Government, Atheism, Liberty

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

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• The office of reformer of the superstitions of a nation is ever dangerous.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Faith Religion, Office, Superstitions

  Thomas Jefferson (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, contin. Reports and opinions while Secretary of State”, p.167

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• I can't tell Black people to fight a war that is Israel's war. What kind of leader will you be, or should I be, to allow these babies Black, white and brown, to fight Israel's war, because Zionists dominate the government of the United States of America and her banking system.

  Louis Farrakhan

  Baby, Religious, War

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• . . . Thirteen governments [of the original states] thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, and which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favor of the rights of mankind.

  John Adams

  Religious, Father, Rights

  John Adams (1851). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.293

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• History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Believe, Government

  Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.193, Cambridge University Press

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