Ethics

Ben Franklin v. Thomas Paine

By Ed Brayton

Ben Franklin is one of those Founders most likely to be thought of as a "deist." Now, perhaps that term, in some sense, describes Franklin's creed, but not in the same sense that it describes Thomas Paine's.

At American Creation Tom Van Dyke has a good post on why Franklin was not a "deist" as that term is commonly understood. I'm going to feature a letter of Ben Franklin's where he criticizes the Bible and compare it to Thomas Paine's biblical criticism. This comparison should show the difference between Paine's deism and Franklin's theology which arguably should not be termed "deism" but something else [though it's certainly not orthodox Trinitarian Christianity].

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on January 16, 2009 (boomark / email).