Lots of people sending me this clip, so here are some thoughts:
Yes, the authors of the Declaration of Independence did invoke the Creator several times in that document (3-5 depending on how you count).
But if you're talking about how the Founders felt, you need to look to our founding document -- and that's the Constitution.
In sharp contrast to the Declaration, there's only one mention of God in the Constitution, and it comes in the then-standard formatting of the date as "in the year of our Lord."
That's it.
Now, there are three references to religion in the Constitution, but notably, all three clearly seek to separate church and state:
1. No religious tests for office holders
2. No establishment of a state religion
3. No state interference with individuals' free exercise of faith
If that wasn't clear enough, you can just look to the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli -- begun by George Washington, signed by John Adams and ratified by a Senate where half the members had helped create/ratify the Constitution just ten years earlier.
In Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli, this nation's founders declared, in language that took the underlying point as a given, that "the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion."
Were many of the Founders themselves religious? Sure! But many were not. Paine was an atheist; Jefferson took a razor to his Bible to remove all the miracles; etc.
Whatever their personal religious beliefs, most agreed that religion should play no formal role in the state.
Those other markers of religious nationalism like "In God We Trust" on paper currency and "under God" in the pledge -- what Eugene Rostow called "ceremonial deism" -- were all added much later.
Indeed, the National Prayer Breakfast (1953) began before "under God" was added to the pledge (1954) or "In God We Trust" was added to paper currency (1957).
If you want the complete story, I'm afraid you'll have to pick up my book.
But I had a nice chat about it with Terry Gross here: npr.org/2015/03/30/396…
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