fellow, interesting how his parents were Puritans. Here is a quote:
According to David Morgan,
[188] Franklin was a proponent of religion in general. He prayed to "Powerful Goodness" and referred to God as "the infinite".
John Adams noted that Franklin was a mirror in which people saw their own religion: "The
Catholics thought him almost a Catholic. The
Church of England claimed him as one of them. The
Presbyterians thought him half a Presbyterian, and the
Friends believed him a wet Quaker." Whatever else Franklin was, concludes Morgan, "he was a true champion of generic religion." In a letter to Richard Price, Franklin stated that he believed that religion should support itself without help from the government, claiming, "When a Religion is good, I conceive that it will support itself; and, when it cannot support itself, and God does not take care to support, so that its Professors are oblig'd to call for the help of the Civil Power, it is a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one."
[189]
In 1790, just about a month before he died, Franklin wrote a letter to
Ezra Stiles, president of
Yale University, who had asked him his views on religion:
As to
Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupt changes, and I have, with most of the present
Dissenters in England, some Doubts as to his divinity; tho' it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and I think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an Opportunity of knowing the Truth with less Trouble. I see no harm, however, in its being believed, if that belief has the good consequence, as it probably has, of making his doctrines more respected and better observed; especially as I do not perceive that the Supreme takes it amiss, by distinguishing the unbelievers in his government of the world with any particular marks of his displeasure.
[15]
I would encourage people to do research on these men and where they stood on religion. I think
all, in some cases one might not be able to reach a conclusion either way.