Who Was Benjamin Franklin Religion Essay

Who Was genus Benzoin Franklin Religion Essay benjamin Franklins ideas on divinity and hu hu universehood constitution were significantly divers(prenominal) from the prude norm at the time. eon Franklin cut matinee idol as a beloved and wise creator, the puritans feared Him as an al powerfulnessy universe. The puritans saw human nature as the ultimate conduit for sin, while Franklin believed that public as products of idol were hot at aggregate. Franklin believed in a idol discrete from both mans act on earth and the puritan ideal of who He was, and in humans not as slaves to sin and redemption, simply as masters of their declare destiny.Puritanism was a very widely held belief system in the other(a) colonies. A direct descendant of Calvinism, Puritanism had strong roots among a bulky number of the colonists throughout early American effectuatetlements. As a religious order of Christianity, they believed in the bible as the word of divinity, and Jesus as Gods so n. It was universal for puritans of the time to fear God and look at all bad luck that befell them as punishment for their sins. And as it struck my hand, so it struck my heart for I suddenly rose up and went into a wood and in that location I cried bitterly, and now concluded that God, God had found me out. (Dane, 4) The puritan God can almost be seen as a tyrannical attractor one who strikes fear into the hearts of His subjects, yet demands their love and respect.Franklins semi-present creator-God was distinctly different from that of the punishing overseer of the puritans. Franklin was one of few deists at the time. It is said that had he published his deism tract thirty years earlier, he would occupy risked imprisonment and execution in the British Empire. The norms of the time, the puritans, were an overwhelming majority. The puritan God was always on that point, always watching over his creations. As John Dane restate from his mother, Go where you will, God he will fin d you out. (Dane, 2) The puritans spent their lives with the incessantly present notion of Gods wrath hanging over their shoulders. Franklins God was not the same entity. He was the creator, and that to Franklin was as far as His relationship with man went. God did not inspire man to write the books of the bible, nor did he rate His Son to die on a cross for mans sin. after quizzical by turns of several points I began to doubt of Revelation itself. (Franklin, 5) Franklins God gave man life and free will, and then gave him the reigns to control his own destiny.The puritan pattern of human nature was based on the idea of original sin. victor sin is a term used to describe the bibles story of decade and Eve eating the fruit from the tree of good and abhorrence below temptation of Satan. Puritans believed that because of this original sin, humans are all inherently invalidate and impure of mind because man is born into sin, it is impossible for him to escape it. Your outperfor m duties are tainted, poisoned, and mingled with some sin, and therefore are most odious in the eyes of a holy God. (Wigglesworth, 4) In the eyes of the church, the all deliver quality of human nature was that they themselves were made by God. They were obedient to God and His word because they were afraid of his punishment. The only hope the puritans had in life was that they might be chosen in Gods eyes as worthy of redemption.Franklin saw the nature of humans in a very different light. While he did look to God for wisdom and insight, he believed that man could be good without God. He came to this conclusion not with religion, moreover with intellect and logic. He maked a list of thirteen virtues that he believed could bring a man to moral nonpareil. These too were not created with any particular religious religious sect in mind, but rather with the idea that all people could fall apart themselves through them. that vicious actions are not hurtful because they are forbidden, but forbidden because they are hurtful, the nature of man alone considered (Franklin, 15) He believed that evil or morally wrong actions were wrong, not because God said so, but because they were hurtful to humanity. Human nature by itself was not corrupt, and it was possible for a man to be truly good.Franklins beliefs on human nature were different in many ways than that of the puritans. While the puritans saw man as essentially evil from conception, Franklin saw man as able to create his own destiny. While both parties believed in God as being important to the life of men, Franklin saw his importance as more of a guide, and little as a strict path like that of the puritans. The Puritans had only one way to achieve completion in life to exculpate Gods redemption. Franklin believed that as man tried to be a ameliorate person, he was achieving his destiny in life. tho I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining I was, by the endeavor, a better and happ ier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempt it (Franklin, 14) The puritans did not believe this was the case, as good deeds to them meant nothing if God did not give favor. Your good duties cannot save you, yet your bad works will damn you. (Wigglesworth, 4)The pick out parties idea of human nature was this instant affected by their respective(prenominal) ideas of God. The puritans believed in a God that was manufacturing business and all encompassing. They thought of themselves as unworthy beasts without purpose, and only with the favor of God did they have any chance of happiness on this earth or after it. everyone sinned in Adam and everyone deserves eternal death (Wigglesworth, 4) Franklin saw a God that was less involved in the lives of men. He put much(prenominal) more emphasis on the worth of a persons works and endeavors, and less on whether or not this person had been chosen by God. there was in my scheme no mark of any of the distinguishing tenants of any particular sect. I had purposely avoided them that it might be serviceable to people of all religions (Franklin, 15) twain groups ideals were founded in belief, and were distinctly different because of the differences in the belief of each respective God.As much as the puritan ideals were similar to that of the deist Benjamin Franklin, the differences of each faith is what defines them. Franklin believed in a God based in logic, while the puritans God was founded in faith and tradition. From this belief in separate Gods, separate belief in human nature arose the puritans believing in Human nature as evil and Franklin believing in it as independent and just. Franklin found that the path to righteousness could be obtained through good works that bettered humanity while the puritans believed that only strict adherence to the guidelines set forth by God could bring salvation. Each point of tantrum has its own foundations and each gives historians a different yet equally applic able perspective on life in the early American colonies.