Reflection- Ben Franklin

Deism is the belief in God and is very much a Christian but yet at the same time, use logic and reasoning when pertaining to life. ("Deism: Its History, Beliefs and Practices.") This caused a lot of controversy in this time for people who believed this way at first because most people in this time were of the puritan belief. Benjamin Franklin was of the deism belief and this did cause a little bit of controversy for him because those who were of the full puritan belief still saw his views to be incorrect. Benjamin Franklin in a way used his book the Autobiography to allow himself to defend himself. He used many different examples of what he believed. "I had been religiously educated as Presbyterian; but, through some of the dogmas of the persuasion, such as the eternal decrees of God, election, reprobation, appeared to me unintelligible, others doubful, nearly absented myself form the public assemblies of the sect, Sunday being my studying I never was without some religious principles." (Franklin 7) This shows that Ben Franklin has always been born with a religious background and has kept religion as a huge importance in his life. Yet, as he grew older he began to question the extent of some of the beliefs in his religion and challenge them. He found himself not believing in some/many of the ideas that we was raised with. He then adopted the idea of deism because he was still very much a believer but he had his own opinions on the idea of inventing, science, and challenging religious "facts". He explored the ideas of morals which was not exactly an idea that was explored by those in a very large religious faith because they believed the only rules morally were in the Bible. Ben Franklin did not disagree with that but he was not in full agreement either. "It was about this time I conceived the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection". (Franklin 10) This was the plan for Ben Franklin for the next few years of his life. This showed his religious beliefs of how he truly wanted to perfect himself as much as a person as he could. Ben Franklin then developed the thirteen virtues of which he was going to live by so he truly could get to his goal of moral perfection. He thought that these virtues would help him to become a better Christian as well. The virtues were temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility. (Franklin 12-13) Each of these were based of what he believed was morally and religiously correct. These all are things that on an average day we all break and Ben Franklin did to. Even as he started this he was always breaking them, not on purpose, but he was always honest about it. Every day he chose to work harder and harder to achieve this religious and moral task that he put on himself.




"Deism: Its History, Beliefs and Practices." Religious Tolerance. Web. 26 Oct. 2011






Franklin, Benjamin. Autobiography. Henry Altimus, 1895. Print.