FOUNDING FATHERS QUOTES AGAINST RELIGION

“The government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.” – John Adams

“Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.” – James Madison

“I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature.” – Thomas Jefferson

“Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.” – Thomas Jefferson

“Lighthouses are more helpful than churches.” – Benjamin Franklin

“The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity.” – John Adams

“The Bible is not my book, nor Christianity my religion.” – Abraham Lincoln

“It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself.” – Thomas Paine

“I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end, where all men and all churches are treated as equal.” – John F. Kennedy

“Religion is the opium of the people.” – Karl Marx (while not a founding father, his quote is often referenced in relation to religion)

“No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust.” – Article VI, U.S. Constitution

“The way to see by Faith is to shut the Eye of Reason.” – Benjamin Franklin

“I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.” – Thomas Jefferson SIMPLE RELATIONSHIP QUOTES

“Experience convinces us that religion is a false support and an unnecessary burden.” – Marquis de Lafayette (a French general who aided the American Revolution)

“I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life, I absented myself from Christian assemblies.” – Benjamin Franklin

“The priests of the different religious sects disgrace the name of religion.” – Ethan Allen

“The United States is in no sense founded upon the Christian doctrine.” – George Washington

“Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law.” – Thomas Paine

“I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this government, I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land, and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be.” – Winston Churchill (while not a founding father, this quote acknowledges the role of religion in rallying a nation)

“To talk of immaterial existences is to talk of nothings. To say that the human soul, angels, God, are immaterial, is to say they are nothings, or that there is no God, no angels, no soul. I cannot reason otherwise.” – Thomas Jefferson

“Religions are all alike – founded upon fables and mythologies.” – Thomas Jefferson

“The establishment of the chaplainship in Congress is a palpable violation of equal rights, as well as of Constitutional principles.” – James Madison

“The Christian priesthood, finding the doctrines of Christ levelled to every understanding and too plain to need explanation, saw, in the mysticisms of Plato, materials with which they might build up an artificial system.” – Thomas Jefferson

“What have been Christianity’s fruits? Superstition, bigotry, and persecution.” – James Madison

“In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty.” – Thomas Jefferson