Supposedly Deistic nature of the Declaration of Independence

[Hamilton02 at aol.com]

I would not lump the Declaration with the Constitution in terms of  
God-consciousness.  The two times are radically different.  
 
The Declaration was penned at a time when Americans believed that they were  
God's chosen for the first successful republican form of government in  
history.  The optimism was Enlightenment-inspired and as much as hubris as  faith.  
 
The Constitution was drafted after they learned they were an utter failure  
at crafting government the first time around (the Articles).  The Calvinist  
instinct at the time to distrust all humans kicked in with some force, so the  
focus was on how to limit and deter the power of those in positions of  
power--not on how they were ascending to the greatest free government in  history.  
They no longer believed they were God's only chosen, but rather  fallible men 
who could do no better than to experiment with whatever structures  and people  
they had at hand.  The horizon was no longer God's  horizon, but man's.  The 
result is a Constitution that focuses on  structure and does not engage in 
God-talk.
 
In either case, it is impossible to argue this is a "Christian" country  with 
any plausibility. It's as much as Christian as it is Enlightenment, Greek,  
and Roman, theology and philosophy, which is to say it is all of them put  
together and more.
 
As for Franklin's suggestion regarding prayer, it was not so much politely  
ignored as no one was willing to pay for the cost of having a cleric come into  
their deliberations and deliver a prayer...
 
Marci
 
 
 

Had TJ wanted  to use words like "the Great God of the Bible" or The Father, 
Son and Holy  Ghost, or The Jehovah, he certainly could have.  The language of 
the  Declaration (and the utter lack of any mention of God in the 
Constitution)  illustrates the general diestic flavor of the founding and the general 
view of  the founding generation to avoid discussion of religion in their 
political  development.  It is not insignifcant, I think that none of the existing  
records of the federal convention contain any references to God or the Bible  
(much less the 10 C) and that when Franklin suggesting beginning the sessions  
with prayer, as a desperate attempt avoid a collapse of the Convention, he was 
 politely ignored.



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