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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dwight E. Karlsen who wrote (18236)	3/13/1998 11:48:00 AM
From: Father Terrence	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Dwight, Do you also take heart that Franklin was a cheerful and much skilled pornographer? FT

To: Dwight E. Karlsen who wrote (18236)	3/15/1998 1:16:00 AM
From: Grainne	Respond to of 108807

Yes, Dwight, I think you may be right about Benjamin Franklin. I have read more about him, and according to this source I have url'ed, he was a deist, i.e. a person who believes generally that there is a supreme being. However, he clearly was not a Christian, and specifically railed against the intolerance he saw in Christianity. In fact, in this passage from his essay on "Toleration" the intolerant character of Christianity is thus presented: "If we look back into history for the character of the present sects in Christianity, we shall find few that have not in their turns been persecutors, and complainers of persecution. The primitive Christians thought persecution extremely wrong in the Pagans, but practiced it on one another. The first Protestants of the Church of England blamed persecution in the Romish church, but practiced it upon the Puritans. These found it wrong in the Bishops, but fell into the same practice themselves both here [England] and in New England" (Works, Vol. ii., p. 112). I have nothing but agreement with Franklin's sentiments on religion. He believed in the same kind of acceptance general acts of kindness that I do, in fact. I think from this passage that he would definitely have loved, and not rejected, a gay child, for example. Here he is at the age of eighty-four, just previous to his death, in reply to inquiries concerning his religious belief from Ezra Stiles, the President of Yale College, he wrote as follows: Here is my creed: I believe in one God, the Creator of the universe. That he governs it by his providence. That he ought to be worshiped. That the most acceptable service we render him is doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this." infidels.org