America’s Forgotten Religion: Deism

If you ask 100 people on the street what Deism is you’d be lucky to find one or two who actually know. This is strange, particularly being in America since many of the key founders of the American Republic were Deists! Revolutionaries such as Thomas Paine, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, to name a few.

Deism is belief in God based on the application of our reason on the designs in Nature. To a Deist, the designs point us to a Designer. It is also the rejection of everything that violates our God-given reason, even religions.

The indispensable American Revolutionary Thomas Paine, the author of Common Sense, The Crisis and The Rights of Man, also wrote a book about God, Deism, religion, the Bible, etc. called The Age of Reason. In this powerful and thought provoking work he makes it very clear that God gave us reason and not religion. He objectively examined both the Old Testament and the New Testament and found they both belittle God and could not possibly be the word of God. Covering Bible claims such as Numbers 31:14-18 which has God’s man of the hour Moses ordering the Israeli army to “kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that has known a man by lying with him, but all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves,” Paine wrote, “Is it because ye are sunk in the cruelty of superstition, or feel no interest in the honor of your Creator, that ye listen to the horrid tales of the Bible, or hear them with callous indifference?”

George Washington was a Deist, although he also officially belonged to the Anglican church and was a vestryman in it.  This is because in Washington’s day, particularly in pre-revolutionary days, if you wanted to have any influence in society you had to belong to the established church. Washington was not the only Founder who had to do this. In the book Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia by Bishop William Meade we read this about Thomas Jefferson and his mentor and fellow signer of the Declaration of Independence, George Wythe: “Even Mr. Jefferson, and George Wythe, who did not conceal their disbelief in Christianity, took their parts in the duties of vestrymen, the one at Williamsburg, the other at Albermarle; for they wished to be men of influence.”

In the outstanding book, Washington and Religion by Paul F. Boller, Jr., the author quotes the Presbyterian minister Arthur B. Bradford who was an associate of the Presbyterian minister Ashbel Green who knew George Washington personally. Bradford said that Green, “often said in my hearing, though very sorrowfully, of course, that while Washington was very deferential to religion and its ceremonies, like nearly all the founders of the Republic, he was not a Christian, but a Deist.”

Many people mistakenly believe that because the Declaration of Independence mentions God that it is a Christian document. The point that seems to be overlooked is that it only mentions God in Deistic terms such as “nature’s God,” Creator,” etc. Never is mentioned the Bible’s God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Moses, or even Jesus.

The U.S. Constitution does not even mention God. Surely, if the Founders wanted America to be a Christian nation they would have clearly stated that intention in at least one of these two critical documents. Instead, the Constitution never mentions God and the Declaration mentions God only in Deistic terms.

One official U.S. document that does not get enough attention is the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the United States and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli of Barbary. Article XI of this treaty which was started in the administration of George Washington and ratified by the United States Senate during the administration of John Adams clearly states, “As the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.” You can’t get much clearer than that.

Another reality which makes the point that America’s founders were Deists and Christians who did not take the Bible very seriously is found in the Bible itself. At Romans 13:1-7 Christians are instructed to be fearful and obedient to governments and the powers that be. The ignorant “reason” for this promotion of subhuman behavior is because those in power are put there by God! What utter idiotic nonsense! I’d bet this is one reason the government gives tax breaks to religions.

Not only does Romans 13:1-7 instruct Christians to be subservient and fearful of governments and officials, it claims that those who resist will receive damnation from God. If we are to believe this degrading (degrading to America’s Founders and revolutionaries as well as to God) Biblical nonsense then we must believe George Washington, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and all the Deists as well as Patrick Henry, Sam Adams and all the Christians who took part in the American Revolution are right now burning in Hell for eternity. Be sure to bring this up at your Fourth of July picnic or next patriotic get-together!

Thank God the Bible is not true and is merely only a collection of ancient Semitic superstitions and myths. And thank God for God-given reason and Deism!

Bob Johnson

Bob Johnson is a freelance writer in the Tampa area of Florida. He was raised Roman Catholic, but after a stint in Marine Corps infantry and reading Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason he became a Deist.

In 1993 he founded the World Union of Deists, and in 1996 he launched the first website devoted to Deism. He is the author of God Gave Us Reason, Not Religion, Deism: A Revolution in Religion, A Revolution in You and An Answer to C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. He has also written the introduction to Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason, The Complete Edition and Principles of Nature by Elihu Palmer.