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Justice wanted

(2,657 posts)
Mon Mar 19, 2012, 09:06 AM Mar 2012

Can someone help me find a Quote by Ben Franklin on Religion.

A winger I know is trying to "Prove" to me that Ben Franklin was "DEEPLY" religious. They are using this quote that I KNOW has been edited because I've seen the actual quote once and I just want the actual quote.

QUOTE:

Religion I have found to be.....


Thanks.

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Can someone help me find a Quote by Ben Franklin on Religion. (Original Post) Justice wanted Mar 2012 OP
Here is a link to a page of quotes by Ben Franklin on religion siligut Mar 2012 #1
Thanks for the page link. I don't like debating this either BUT when someone twists Franklin's word Justice wanted Mar 2012 #2
Christianity Corrupted dynasaw Mar 2012 #3
Thanks for sharing that. bluedigger Mar 2012 #4
probably more than you want SCantiGOP Mar 2012 #5

siligut

(12,272 posts)
1. Here is a link to a page of quotes by Ben Franklin on religion
Mon Mar 19, 2012, 09:19 AM
Mar 2012

I didn't find exactly that, but this one is similar.

"I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life I absented myself from Christian assemblies."

[Benjamin Franklin, in _Toward The Mystery_]

http://articles.exchristian.net/2002/03/ben-franklin-quotes.php

Good luck with your friend, I personally would rather bark at a dog than discuss religion with a winger.

Justice wanted

(2,657 posts)
2. Thanks for the page link. I don't like debating this either BUT when someone twists Franklin's word
Mon Mar 19, 2012, 09:29 AM
Mar 2012

so that it looks like Fanklin was for fundamentalist brand of religion it makes me angry.

dynasaw

(998 posts)
3. Christianity Corrupted
Mon Mar 19, 2012, 10:40 AM
Mar 2012

On March 1, 1790, Franklin wrote the following in a letter to Ezra Stiles, president of Yale, who had asked him his views on religion...:

"As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupt changes, and I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England, some Doubts as to his divinity; tho' it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and I think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an Opportunity of knowing the Truth with less Trouble...." (Carl Van Doren. Benjamin Franklin. New York: The Viking Press, 1938, p. 777.)

SCantiGOP

(13,870 posts)
5. probably more than you want
Mon Mar 19, 2012, 11:57 AM
Mar 2012

But this covers pretty much the whole field. Not surprising they would have a very sceptical view of religion since the state and church that they were trying to seperate from were one unit.

"I had hoped that liberal and enlightened thought would have reconciled the Christians so that their religious fights would not endanger the peace of society." "We have abundant reason to rejoice that in this land, the light of truth and reason has triumphed over the power of bigotry and superstition, and that every person may worship god according to the dictates of his own heart." George Washington

This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it. Consider the calamities that engine of grief has produced! John Adams

"Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon, than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness, that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind." - Thomas Paine (The Age of Reason, 1794-1795.)

"Question with boldness even the existence of a god." - Thomas Jefferson (letter to Peter Carr, 10 August 1787)

"When a Religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its Professors are obliged to call for help of the Civil Power, it is a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one." - Benjamin Franklin (from a letter to Richard Price, October 9, 1780

I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of... Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all."- Thomas Paine (The Age of Reason, 1794-1795.)

"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution." - James Madison (Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments, 1785.)

"Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth." - Thomas Jefferson (Notes on Virginia, 1782; from George Seldes, ed., The Great Quotations, Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel Press, 1983, p. 363.)

"Where do we find a precept in the Bible for Creeds, Confessions, Doctrines and Oaths, and whole carloads of other trumpery that we find religion encumbered with in these days?" - John Adams

"The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretence, infringed.'' - James Madison (Original wording of the First Amendment; Annals of Congress 434 (June 8, 1789).)

"As the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Musselmen; and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries." - (Treaty of Tripoli, 1797 - signed by President John Adams.)
"As to religion, I hold it to be the indispensable duty of government to protect all conscientious protesters thereof, and I know of no other business government has to do therewith." - Thomas Paine (Common Sense, 1776.)

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