By Jeremy Fejfar, August 1, 2008

This is in response to a recent letter about the Founders’ views on religion. Judge for yourself:

John Adams: “The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.”

“The Doctrine of the divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity,”

and “As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation. But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends, have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that has ever existed?”

Thomas Jefferson: “The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.”

“I have examined all the known superstitions of the world, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology. Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make one half of the world fools and the other half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the earth.”

Benjamin Franklin: “Light-houses are more helpful than churches.”

Thomas Paine: “All natural institutions of churches, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.”