Why do people think that this country was founded on Christianity?

dear anonymous: i am a christian but i do not consider this nation to be. i understand where you are coming from when it comes to the mention of christianity. you must also remember that it wasn't just the men in that room that formed this nation. it was every single man who fought and bleed to work a farm or to fire a shot. what i understand this phrase "founded on Christianity" to mean is that some of the values and ideas from the Christian faith were borrowed and placed in the constitiution because those men agreed, not right away but eventually, that those values were the best foundation for a nation of free people. I'm not sure how much you know about the Christian faith, but one of the biggest ideas is that of free will. God could force people to do things that are good, but He chooses not to. The great men who forged our constitution thought that the government should behave in a similar matter. Free will.

All people are going to take what they like and use it. That doesn't mean that this nation was founded on Christianity. And free will is an idea that is old hat. it was around long before Christianity was.

And there were plenty of men who fought and bled to work a farm or to fire a shot that were not Christian.

Marri - i thank you for your reply. Honestly i am rather frustrated due to a specific conversation i had with someone today via email. She seems to think that "under God" is how this nation started and refuses to look at any links of historical reference that prove otherwise.

- Faithful4ever

"under God" wasn't brought in to the pledge of allegiance until later, i believe the 1970's. i do agree that many many people were not Christians but many were. that is another great thing about this nation. it is one of the specific reasons why this nation evolved from pilgrims to colonies and to states joined together. i could go on a tangent about one of the other points in this conversation, but i will not since that is not what you are aiming at. i personally believe that this nation was founded on some of the principles of Christianity, not Christianity itself. like you said, people who don't know there history very well would get the two mixed up easily.

*their history, sorry about that, too late to correct it....

All I got to say is people have taken God out of everything and its sad and one day they will be sorry they did

----In 1954, Congress after a campaign by the Knights of Columbus, added the words, 'under God,' to the Pledge. The Pledge was now both a patriotic oath and a public prayer.
------ "In God We Trust" is a bit of a long story & started in late 1860s.... (info here http://www.ustreas.gov/education/fact-sheets/currency/in-god-we-trust.shtml)

Silly Anon button! ----In 1954, Congress after a campaign by the Knights of Columbus, added the words, 'under God,' to the Pledge. The Pledge was now both a patriotic oath and a public prayer. ------ "In God We Trust" is a bit of a long story & started in late 1860s.... (info here http://www.ustreas.gov/education/fact-sheets/currency/in-god-we-trust.shtml)

The founding fathers were Christian. God and prayer were a big part of our early nation. The Constitution wasn't written to eliminate religion from government but so government wouldn't sponsor any one religion. They didn't want a situation like Saudi Arabia or Iran were religion ruled the country.

Jefferson quoting from a Baptist minister Roger Williams "...the hedge or wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world, God hath ever broken down the wall." It's evident the primary intent of the phrase "wall of separation" was to protect the garden of the church from invasion by the state

Jefferson wanted the Church protected from the State

cont..

The Superim Court under John Marshall always opened with prayer

The day the First Amendment was approved, Congress proposed a day of prayer to the Almighty God

Congress summited the Establishment Clause before the Bill of Rights was ratified by the states allowing for a paid Chaplin in the House and Senate

The First Congress instituted the practice of beginning each session with a prayer.

 

There are plenty of instances were prayer and region were part of the periphery of government.  Founding fathers prayed together often.  They did not want region taking over decisions of government and become the rule of law, and they wanted to protect religion from being run by the state.  However they were not trying to eliminate region altogether from government there is no credible bases for that.