Bryan Griffin is a little quick to jump to the conclusion that America was founded on Judeo-Christian philosophies in his Thursday column. He assumes, as many others have before him, the God mentioned in the Declaration of Independence is the God of Judaism and Christianity.
Actually, many of the founding fathers were not Christians at all; they were deists. Deists believe that a supreme being, called God or Nature’s God, created the universe and left it to its own devices.
This is the God that Thomas Jefferson, who remixed the Gospels to highlight Jesus’ moral teachings and remove references to his divinity, name drops in the opening sentence of the Declaration.
Editor's note: This letter refers to this column http://www.alligator.org/opinion/columns/article_86e73f18-b648-11df-b8af-001cc4c002e0.html
