Kent West wrote:
Mumia W wrote:
What's not to love about Ben? He was an atheist too.
Sorry about the messed up attribution. Mumia did not write the "From";
Kent did.
From
http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/john_remsburg/six_historic_americans/chapter_4.html
"In conversation with familiar friends he called himself a Deist or
Theist, and he resented a sentence in Mr. Whitefield's journal which
seemed to imply that between a Deist and an Atheist there was little
or no difference. Whitefield wrote: 'M.B. is a Deist; I had almost
said an Atheist.' 'That is,' said Franklin, 'chalk, I had almost said
charcoal" (Ibid, Vol. i., p. 319).
At the age of eighty-four, just previous to his death, in reply to
inquiries concerning his religious belief from Ezra Stiles, the
President of Yale College, he wrote as follows:
Here is my creed: I believe in one God, the Creator of the universe.
That he governs it by his providence. That he ought to be worshiped.
That the most acceptable service we render him is doing good to his
other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated
with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this."
This is pure Deism. Paine
<http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/thomas_paine/> and
Voltaire <http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/voltaire/> would
have readily subscribed to every one of the above six articles of
faith. Compare the creed of Franklin with the creed of Paine.
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