Our Founding Fathers

Conservatives will often argue that this is a Christian nation because the founding fathers intended it that way. Following are some quotes I recently discovered.

"As the Government of the United States 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 (Muslims) . . . no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."
- A treaty with Tripoli drafted under George Washington and signed by John Adams, 1797

"Lighthouses are more useful than churches."
- Benjamin Franklin

"This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it."
- John Adams (shades of John Lennon)

"I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief with which the history of mankind has preserved - the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!"
- John Adams

"Question with boldness even the existence of a God, if there be one, he must approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear."
- Thomas Jefferson

"Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man."
- Thomas Jefferson

(Jefferson took scissors and cut up the Bible, edited out parts he thought were too fantastic, and glued it back together to his own liking.)