Page 45 - Liberating Liberals V2

Liberating Liberals
whim. Nevertheless, Nietzsche would have much less quarrel with the second 50% cohort of the Baylor study because freethinking is not greatly inhibited by a benevolent or distant God. This God sounds a lot like that of some of our founding geniuses. Said Jefferson:
Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must approve the homage of reason rather than of blind-folded fear.33
Said Franklin:
As to Jesus of Nazareth...I have, with most
of the present dissenters in England, some doubts
as to his divinity. Though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon... when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble. 34 [Ha!]
Said even the Puritan John Adams:
Let the human mind loose. It must be loose! It will be loose. Superstition and dogmatism cannot confine it.35
Not that Jefferson had a weak belief in God:
I hold (without appeal to revelation) that
when we take a new view of the Universe ...it is impossible for the human mind not to perceive and feel a conviction of design, consummate skill, and indefinite power in every atom of its composition... It is impossible, I say, for the human mind not to believe that there is...a fabricator of all things. 36
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