Arguing over "deist" and "atheist" is pointless anyway in this case. The neocon right's endless portrayal of the American founding fathers as evangelical churchgoers is embarrassing, wrong, and shows just how incapable of understanding their philosophies people like Beck are. Franklin largely considered himself a Christian, but he continually cited the values of the Enlightenment as being key to the creation of the American Democracy, and considered the teachings of the great philosophers as on par with the teachings found in religion. None of the knuckle-dragging pigfuckers who compose the majority of Christians in the US today could even begin to understand a personal philosophy like that, much less even comprehend the arguments of people like Plato and Socrates. They don't even understand basic, grade-school physics.
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