What part did religion/spirituality play in the founding of America

I think the “founding fathers” were just trying to create a place where anyone could go and worship whatever they wanted. it wasn’t so much that they were trying to fascilitate the worship of the christian god, it was that they wanted freedom.

slapintheface…

You say:

The morals of Christianity were instituted, but not the actual religion.

So… where did they get the morals… from ?

I think everyone is familiar with the phrase “One nation, under God”. It suggests that there is the incorporation of religion in the founding of this country.

The morals of Christianity were instituted, but not the actual religion. That is why you see references to God. However, the word “god” can be put towards any religion, making it versatile. They were for religious freedom, so they did not pin down a religion to be the one for America.

I don’t really think the bible had anything to do with the founding of America though I guess christianity was brought to Amewrica but personally I don’t think the bible or any religion founded our country but thats just me and what I think

silverwings: “Ok.. so it evolved… why are the conditions much worse now, than they were when I was growing up? “

Worse for who? For blacks in south who couldn’t vote, get a decent education, or decent work? It all depends on your perspective.

Captain… you say that morality determines right or wrong. Right?

Who created morality?

Where did it come from ?

When did it start?

The evolutionists say we evolved… from cavemen, so, I guess you are going to say that morality evolved… right?

Ok.. so it evolved… why are the conditions much worse now, than they were when I was growing up?

Is evolution going backwards?

Morality involves the concepts of right & wrong, and appropriate conduct towards your fellow man (law). Religion was used as a way to ENFORCE those law/morals/etc. Religion isn’t the foundation of morals today, a good upbringing and education is. Though, when used properly, religion CAN be a good set of guidelines…

If you wanted to argue that morality came from religion, then you would have to acknowledge all the religions that preceded Christianity, to be the more viable sources; since Christianity was influenced so heavily by them.

The Founding Fathers were mostly Deists…

When they wrote the nation’s Constitution, they specified that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” (Article 6, section 3)

Nowhere in the Constitution does it mention religion, except in exclusionary terms. The words “Jesus Christ, Christianity, Bible, and God” are never mentioned in the Constitution… at all.

im not american, but I personally believe that the main reason the founding fathers decided to separate religion from state is largely due to the fact that they had knowlegde of what religion had done in the 500 years prior to the constitution. the catholic church had a stranglehold on all of europe, taking money and makin decisions for lots of different countries and waging many holy wars in the ‘name of god’. it was, in fact, the first ‘behind the scenes empire’. then you look at what england did when they eventually broke away from the catholic church shortly after the martin luther movement. they persecuted all catholics in britain, burning many alive for failing to conform to their beliefs. to this day irish catholics still hold a grudge. hence why we have the IRA. also the church of england and all its finances, is still to this day under direct control by the monarchy (the queen right now). yes thats right, a religion whos leader is not a man (or woman) of the cloth. just simply someone living off the money of others. I think the forefathers knew that if they were to incorporate christianity into the constitution, they would not be truly in control of their country. they saw the evil and tried to rectify it. religion is by far the most dangerous creation of man. to this day that point is still being portrayed for all the world to see. its just a shame america decided to introduce the federal reserve.. sigh.. just another institution to keep a grip on what was once a free country

When the American Revolution ended, Europe had been through over 200 years of religious wars, mostly between Catholics and Protestants. Much of this was because churches and clergy held enormous political power, and religious law was intertwined with state and civil law. The founding fathers, who were Enlightenment thinkers, did not want to see this happen in the United States.

At the same time, religious figures like Roger Williams agreed with separation of church and state, but for different reasons. They wanted to keep the “garden of the church” free from the “wilderness of the world”. He saw state involvement in matters of religion and spirituality as a bad thing. For this reason, he supported a society in which the church and state acted independently of each other.

Who created morality? Where did it come from ? When did it start?

Have you actually researched it on your own? I don’t think ‘morality’ has a patent pending on it. It grew and evolved as people grew and evolved.

Everything has to have a creator in your mind. Everything has to have a single moment where it all began. Well, there are questions that no one can answer. When that happens, you can either believe the ‘best’ answer in your mind, believe the answer you were TOLD to believe, or… believe that for now… it cannot be answered.

I know YOUR answer would be GOD. In fact, that’s your usual answer for anything you don’t understand, or don’t wish to ponder. Well, that answer just isn’t good enough anymore.

The evolutionists say we evolved… from cavemen, so, I guess you are going to say that morality evolved… right?

Yeah… it did… if you could take ‘cavemen’ out of the equation, and look at the word evolve (= to change slowly over time). A good examples of moral evolution would be Womans’ Sufferage (1800s) and the Womans’ Rights Movement (1960s).

Ok.. so it evolved… why are the conditions much worse now, than they were when I was growing up?

Maybe that big rock you were living under, hid the grim reality…

ha …ha ha ha… ha.

big rock…

slapintheface87: “Under god” wasn’t added to the US pledge of allegiance until the 1950s.

Yes and no. Many of the Founders were believers in Christianity (Samual Adams, John Adams, George Carroll of Carrollton), Deism (Ben Franklin, probably Jefferson, Thomas Paine), Judaism (Haym Solomon - not a signer, but bankrolled a lot of the Revolution’s monetary challenges), and so on, but many of them were also highly learned in philosophy, both ancient (Seneca, Socrates, Aristotle), and contemporary (like John Locke and Sir William Blackstone, among others). They each had differing devotions to their beliefs, but most of them had come to an understanding that an established religion, propped up by the government, was antithetical to liberty (and exception was Patrick Henry, for example, who after the revolution fought to keep certain churches from losing their tax-paid funding).

Thus, I think that while religion played (and has played) a large part in the CULTURE of the United States, the founding of American was more based on the enlightnment philosophers who understood that freedom required a separation of church and state. That being said, patriots like the Adams cousins believed that the revolution, and the subsequent separation of church and state was all part of God’s plan. And THAT being said, many of the founders believed that the nation would only remain free and independent if peopled by a moral and religious people.

This is a VERY complex topic, but that’s my understanding of it in a nutshell.