#our case is strong enough without falsehood to ''bolster'' it

[andersunmenschlich]

Full quotes in context below the cut.

"I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life. I believe in the equality of man, and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavouring to make our fellow-creatures happy. But, lest it should be supposed that I believe many other things in addition to these, I shall, in the progress of this work, declare the things I do not believe, and my reasons for not believing them.

"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any other church that I know of. My own mind is my own church. All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and to monopolize power and profit." —Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason (1794) .

"As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen [Muslims],—and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan [Islamic] nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries." —Article 11 of the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli, written by Joel Barlow, ratified unanimously by the US Senate, signed by President John Adams

["Now be it known, That I John Adams, President of the United States of America, having seen and considered the said Treaty do, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, accept, ratify, and confirm the same, and every clause and article thereof." —John Adams on the Treaty of Tripoli] .

"This free exercise of reason is all I ask for the vindication of the character of Jesus.

"We find in the writings of his biographers matter of two distinct descriptions. First a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstitions, fanaticisms, & fabrications.

"Intermixed with these again are sublime ideas of the supreme being, aphorisms and precepts of the purest morality & benevolence, sanctioned by a life of humility, innocence, and simplicity of manners, neglect of riches, absence of worldly ambition & honors, with an eloquence and persuasiveness which have not been surpassed.

"These could not be inventions of the grovelling authors who relate them. They are far beyond the powers of their feeble minds.

"They show that there was a character, the subject of their history, whose splendid conceptions were above all suspicion of being interpolations from their hands. Can we be at a loss in separating such materials, & ascribing each to its genuine author?

"The difference is obvious to the eye and to the understanding, and we may read; as we run, to each his part; and I will venture to affirm that he who, as I have done, will undertake to winnow this grain from its chaff, will find it not to require a moment's consideration. The parts fall asunder of themselves as would those of an image of metal & clay.

"There are, I acknowlege, passages not free from objection, which we may with probability ascribe to Jesus himself; but claiming indulgence from the circumstances under which he acted.

"His object was the reformation of some articles in the religion of the Jews, as taught by Moses. That Seer had presented, for the object of their worship, a being of terrific character, cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust. Jesus, taking for his type the best qualities of the human head and heart, wisdom, justice, goodness, and adding to them power, ascribed all of these, but in infinite perfection, to the supreme being, and formed him really worthy of their adoration." —Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 4 August 1820

"You ask if I mean to publish anything on the subject of a letter of mine to my friend Charles Thompson? Certainly not. I write nothing for publication, and last of all things should it be on the subject of religion. On the dogmas of religion (as distinguished from moral principles), all mankind, from the beginning of the world to this day, have been quarrelling, fighting, burning and torturing one another, for abstractions unintelligible to themselves and to all others, and absolutely beyond the comprehension of the human mind. Were I to enter on that arena, I should only add an unit to the number of Bedlamites." —Thomas Jefferson to Mathew Carey, 11 November 1816

["It is a document in proof that I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus, very different from the Platonists, who call me infidel, and themselves Christians and preachers of the gospel, while they draw all their characteristic dogmas from what its author never said nor saw." —Thomas Jefferson on his 'wee little book', in a letter to Charles Thomson on 9 January 1816] .

"On a general comparison of the present & former times, the balance is certainly & vastly on the side of the present as to the number of religious teachers, the zeal which actuates them, the purity of their lives, and the attendance of the people on their instructions. It was the universal opinion of the century preceding the last that civil government could not stand without the prop of a religious establishment, & that the Xn religion itself would perish if not supported by a legal provision for its clergy.

"The experience of Virginia conspicuously corroborates the disproof of both opinions.

"The civil government, though bereft of everything like an associated hierarchy, possesses the requisite stability and performs its functions with complete success, whilst the number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood & the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the Church from the State." —James Madison to Robert Walsh Jr., 2 March 1819 .

I can't find any evidence that John Adams ever said or wrote the exact words "the United States is not, in any sense, a Christian nation."

He did, however, sign the Treaty of Tripoli, written by Joel Barlow and containing (in its English version, which was the one President John Adams signed) Article 11: "the government of the United States of America is in no sense founded on the Christian religion."

Thomas Paine: “I do not believe in…any church,” he declared. In a call to arms against what he called church-state tyranny in early America, he insisted that “every national church or religion accuses the others of unbelief; for my own part, I disbelieve them all.”

George Washington: "The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."

Thomas Jefferson: " The Christian God is a being of terrific character -- cruel, vindictive, capricious, and unjust . We discover in the Bible a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstition, fanaticism and fabrication . On the dogmas of religion, as distinguished from moral principles, all mankind, from the beginning of the world to this day, have been quarreling, fighting, burning and torturing one another, for abstractions unintelligible to themselves and to all others, and absolutely beyond the comprehension of the human mind."

James Madison: “It was the universal opinion of the [18th] century, that civil government could not stand without the prop of a religious establishment and that the Christian religion itself would perish if not supported by a legal provision for its clergy.” But as President, Madison found that, “the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of church from the state.”

John Adams: “the United States is not, in any sense, a Christian nation.”