It is the weekend once again and today is a Sunday…..my day for a visit from the granddaughter where she and I either play some game or we sit and have a “rap session” to use a term from my youth.

We have talked about religion and I have never tried to influence her one way of the other…..I did encourage her to ask me questions and I would be forthright and answer them as best as I can….

One of our sessions we talked about religion and the founding of this country….she was told that all the founding dudes were religious and that is why we call this a “Christian” country….she wanted to know what I thought….

I told her that the most influential thinkers of the founding were not all that religious but rather what is called a deist……I explained the term to her….

Deists believe in the existence of God, on purely rational grounds, without any reliance on revealed religion, religious authority, or holy text. Because of this, Deism is quite different from religions like Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The latter are largely based on revelations that Jews, Christians and Muslims believe mostly came from God to prophet(s) who then taught it to humans. We like to call natural religions by the title “bottom-up” faiths and revealed religions as “top-down.

Many of the leaders of the French and American revolutions followed this belief system. Among the U.S. founding fathers, John Quincy Adams, Ethan Allen, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison Thomas Paine, and George Washington were all Deists. Deists played a major role in creating the principle of separation of church and state, and the religious freedom clauses of the First Amendment of the Constitution.

I then told her about Jefferson who so disliked the teachings in the New Testament that he edited it and compiled his own personal version of it……he called his version…..the Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth…..(in case one would like to read instead of trying to find a copy then check it out)……

Source: The Jefferson Bible (The Life & Morals of Jesus of Nazareth)

I also told her that I had always wanted a copy of it and she found me one and presented to me……it will go in my collection along with my coveted copy of Commonsense given to me by my grandfather all so long ago….

Go outside and get some sun…..later my friends…..