Recently, I was listening to a congressional candidate in my district. He was blathering about how there's some conspiracy by atheists to make it sound like America was not based on Christianity. His claim was that atheists want to take over the country and make America Godless. At first I found it quite funny. What got me hot under the collar was his claim that ALL of the framers and founders of the Constitution were Christians!

Well, here are some facts; Thomas Jefferson (you know, the one who actually penned the Declaration of Independence and had a hand in our Constitution): "There is no question Jefferson rejected the Bible as divine revelation and rejected the divinity of Jesus. In the Declaration of Independence Jefferson's appeal was to the God of the Deist, "Nature's God," not specifically to the God of Christianity (see letter dated Sep. 14, 1813, to Jefferson from John Adams equating "Nature's God" with "the revelation from nature")." From 'WAS THOMAS JEFFERSON A DEIST?', John Eidsmoe, professor of constitutional law at Faulkner University

As for Benjamin Franklin, well here is what he had to say, "Some books against Deism fell into my hands; they were said to be the substance of the sermons which had been preached at Boyle's Lectures. It happened that they wrought an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them; for the arguments of the Deists, which were quoted to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger than the refutations; in short, I soon became a thorough Deist." From Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin 1728.