Anyone else NOT care about Christams?
Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, Andrew Carnegie, Mark Twain, Madame Curie...all of them atheists who did pretty well. Did you 'figure' they were atheists?
We all have a right to our beliefs, it's in our Constitution.
I don't know about the others but Ben Franklin was not even close to being athiest.
But.. He wasn't even close to all the beliefs of the church of his time either.
The first here is from wikipedia, the second is from a letter he wrote about a month before he died to some guy named Ezra Stiles.
wiki,
Franklins Puritan upbringing was a central factor throughout his life, as a philanthropist, civic leader and activist in the Revolutionary War.[69] Franklin rejected much of his Puritan upbringing: belief in salvation, hell, Jesus Christs divinity, and indeed most religious dogma. He retained a strong faith in God as the wellspring of morality and goodness in man, and as a Providential actor in history responsible for American independence.[70] He often invoked God as being in support of the American Revolution, as did most of the founding generation.[71] Franklin wrote, Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God
letter,
Here is my Creed: I believe in one God, Creator of the Universe. That He governs it by his Providence. That he ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable Service we can render to 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. These I take to be the fundamental Principles of all sound Religion, and I regard them as you do, in whatever Sect I meet with them. As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion as he left them to us, the best the World ever saw, or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting Changes, and I have with most of the present Dissenters in England, some Doubts as to his Divinity: tho' it is a Question I do not dogmatise upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an Opportunity of knowing the Truth with less Trouble. I see no harm however in its being believed, if that Belief has the good Consequence as probably it has, of making his Doctrines more respected and better observed, especially as I do not perceive that the Supreme takes it amiss, by distinguishing the Believers, in his Government of the World, with any particular Marks of his Displeasure. I shall only add respecting myself, that having experienced the Goodness of that Being, in conducting me prosperously thro' a long Life, I have no doubt of its Continuance in the next, tho' without the smallest Conceit of meriting such Goodness.