Foundational Documents of the United States
The Declaration of Independence has some wording considered by a few to reference the Christian god.
The use of “Creator” suggests to some the Christian thought they see founding our country.
This is not historically true. Thomas Jefferson was the primary author of this document and he was an avowed Deist. Deism uses “God” as a term for that which created the universe and sustains natural law. To a Deist, God would not be a person who changed things based on someone’s prayer. A Deist would see this as superstition. The Bible is seen as a historical document, perhaps with good ethical teaching, but not divinely inspired. John Adams and Benjamin Franklin were also Deists serving on the “Committee of Five” charged with drafting the Declaration of Independence. (add links with Adams and Franklin) to-[2nd-Deism of Madison, Washington, Adams, Franklin and Allen]
The “truths” that are “self evident” were Enlightenment Era concepts and not Christian at all. We know this because the original drafts of the Declaration of Independence did not include the word “Creator.” In a copy made by John Adams between June 11 and June 28 the wording was:
“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal and independent; that from that equal creation they derive in rights inherent and unalienable, among which are the preservation of life, and liberty and the pursuit of happiness; .” (1)
The above referenced version was derived from a prior first draft from Jefferson that also did not include “Creator.” The copy by Adams almost certainly was done in consultation with Jefferson and with his complete agreement. It was only after several drafts and revisions that the word “Creator” was inserted. Deism often used “God,” “Divine Providence” and other reverent wording with an explicitly non-Christian meaning. It is clear that “Creator” is derived from the secular words “equal creation” used in all first drafts. This may have meant nothing more than the fact of an equivalent process of birth implying equivalent rights. Humanity, at that time in history, had no science to approach answering the question of "Where do we come from?" The founding fathers had no counter-argument to having been "created", somehow.
Jefferson was very explicit and open concerning the non-Christianity of his Deism. Some quotes from Jefferson to confirm this are:
"I have examined all the known superstitions of the world, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology. Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the earth." (2)
-Thomas Jefferson to William Short
"But a short time elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion, before his principles were departed from by those who professed to be his special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind, and aggrandizing their oppressors in Church and State."
-Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, January 19, 1810
"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own”
- Thomas Jefferson to Horatio G. Spafford, March 17, 1814
“But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”
-Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782
Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear.
-Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Peter Carr, August 10, 1787
The Declaration of Independence has another reference that seems somewhat religious; “the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God” This is again a concept deriving from Enlightenment philosophy placing heavy emphasis on nature. Jefferson is using an explicitly Deist and non-Christian concept of “God.”The closing paragraph makes it explicit that the authority for the Declaration of Independence derives from the people and not from the Christian God:
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