Reply #31: Not if you try to name some atheists of that time.

[immoderate]

It was a transitional period. It was the birth of modern science, and cultural influences were dominant. They acknowledged a creator because there was little alternative. But they generally ignored the practice of religion or the possibility of a caretaker god. If they were alive today, surely Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison would be atheists, and the ever ubiqitous Washington would probably be ambiguous. Remember, Washington did not pray or take communion. He refused clergy on his deathbed.

Of course I can only speculate, and perhaps, as politicians, these men would remain in the closet. But surely, they were rationalists, and did not subscribe to the magic and miracles of religion.

--IMM