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LITR 4326
Early American Literature Research Posts 2016 (research post assignment) Research Post 2 |
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Brittney Wilson
Balance
Ben Franklin is obviously more widely known as one of the Founding
Fathers of the United States of America as well as being an author, an inventor,
a scientist, a diplomat, a statesman, politician, civic activist, and political
theorist, to name a few. What a lot
of people do not know is that Ben Franklin, as well as a few of the other
well-known Founding Fathers, was a deist. This means that he believed in one
absolute Creator but not in an Almighty God or Jesus Christ or Muhammad, just one
common Creator for everyone regardless of any religious beliefs or practices.
This notion of one great creator was a new one that came about during the
Enlightenment when reason came to the forefront of thinking in place of the
sovereignty of one Christian God. I cannot imagine that deism was well thought
of in the 17th century Puritan society; fortunately, a few good
men saw the potential and the overall good that could come from separating
church from state. Deism could possibly bring peace and harmony to the people in
desperate need during this period of time when the nation was nothing but a
feeble fledgling.
Franklin was an autodidact, claiming, “From
a child I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came into my hands
was ever laid out in books.” Reading books from his father’s library, he read
most of the books he owned about “polemic divinity”, or religious controversy,
of which he said that he regretted that more proper books had not fallen into
his hands since he had now resolved not to join the clergy. On books opposing
Deism he said, “"Some books against Deism fell into my hands; they were said to
be the substance of sermons preached at Boyle's Lectures. It happened that they
wrought an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them; for the
arguments of the Deists.” He turned his attention instead to works by De Foe and
Dr. Mather titled in order of author’s appearance here as
Essay on Projects and Essays
to do Good which focused more on public works and evidently about doing good
as a human being. Franklin said that these works in comparison to the others,
“gave [him] a turn of thinking that had an influence on some of the principal
future events of [his] life”.
Aside from simply reading, Franklin had been brought up as a Presbyterian
and very early on found most of the doctrines to be “unintelligible” and others
“doubtful”. He did not approve of the “eternal decrees of God, election,
reprobation, etc.” and very quickly excused himself from the public assemblies
of the church. Yet, having quitted the Puritan aspects of the church he deemed
ridiculous, he was still able to come to agreement about the existence of one
common Deity who created the entire world and governed it by “his Providence.”
In this idea, he found some universal truths. It seems that he did not
agree on the supreme sovereignty of a merciless God but did concur with the
concepts of, “doing good to man; that our souls are immortal; and that all crime
will be punished, and virtue rewarded, either here or hereafter”.
By Franklin, these issues were seen as essential aspects of any and every
religion that we had in our country but the mixture of other dogmas seemed to
him to divide our people against each other. In a letter to Thomas Jefferson on
religious faith, Franklin wrote, “But I wish it were more productive of good
works than I have generally seen it; I mean real good works; works of kindness,
charity, mercy, and public spirit; not holiday keeping, sermon reading or
hearing; performing church ceremonies, or making long prayers, filled with
flatteries and compliments, despised even by wise men, and much less capable of
pleasing the Deity.” And these differing aspects are what made Franklin
realize that it did no one any good to speak ill of another religion than their
own, that “even the worst [religion] had some good effects."
Since Franklin was a firm believer in the very cornerstone of the
Enlightenment, he stood behind the concept of giving every assumption and idea
the test of reason and to actually hear men out. In his
Remarks Concerning the Savages of North
America, Franklin found it humorous that a Swedish Minister could give a
sermon to the Chiefs of the Saquehanah Indians on the Christian story of origin,
thinking it to be a sacred truth, then be appalled when the Indians gave their
own creation story in return. The Minister was said to be “disgusted” by this
“idle tale”, because he was completely fixed in his opinion that the Christian
story was the only one to be true and that the Savages’ story was nothing but
mere “fable”. The Chief was of course offended and scolded the Minister for not
being educated properly in the ways of civility.
These ideals founded Franklin’s tact in facing opposition from business
men and in politics. When speaking with others, he believed that the purpose of
conversation was to listen, not just to inform, persuade, or please his
audience. He was displeased with speakers who were “well-meaning” but who put on
an amiable façade in order to entertain or instruct with their speech instead of
having any sort of discourse between equal minds. Strongly opinionated
sentiments would “provoke contradiction and prevent candid attention” from your
audience. This brings Franklin’s strategies back to deism because he believed
that if an informer were concrete in his opinions and therefore unopen to new
things, that the listener would “probably leave you undisturbed in the
possession of your error.”
Franklin had a good understanding of how to generally be a good
human-being without judging anyone else on their beliefs and without the desire
to simply please his listeners in order to persuade them—an idea that transcends
time and is an astute way of handling politics.
Works Cited
Ben Franklin’s Autobiography
Ben Franklin’s
Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America
http://www.deism.com/deistamerica.htm
http://creationrevolution.com/was-benjamin-franklin-a-deist/
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