Many think America was founded on Judeo-Christian values. I hear this often from my Christian friends, and from my socially conservative Republican friends. But America is more a product of the 18th century French Enlightenment than Christianity.

Yes, many of the Framers of the U.S. Constitution (1789) were Christian and deeply religious men, but many weren’t Christian, or Jewish. In fact, America was founded on the scientific rationalism of the 17th and 18th century European Enlightenment, more than on Christianity.

Our first and third presidents weren’t even Christians. Did you know our third President, Thomas Jefferson, rewrote the Bible taking out references to the divinity of Christ? And George Washington didn’t believe in the Judeo-Christian omnipotent God, only a Creator God.

Many of our Founding Fathers were “Deists.” Deists, like George Washington and Ben Franklin, believed God is the Creator, but then is hands off —letting human free will control from then on. He sets the ball rolling, but that’s it. Thomas Paine, the great pamphleteer of the Revolution, was a rationalist, if not an outright atheist.

The word “God” is not even in the Constitution. Yes, it is in the Declaration of Independence, but this reference from Thomas Jefferson is to the Deist Creator God, not to the Christian omnipotent God. Further, the Declaration of Independence is not law but merely a rhetorical document. It’s an important document, but not a legal document.

I’d submit that America was founded on rationality and humanism, more than on pre-scientific Christianity or Judaism.

Jeff E. Jared is a Kirkland resident and attorney.