When was God first associated with America as an integral part of the nation itself?

The establishment clause specifically prohibits us from being a “Christian nation” or a “Jewish nation” or an “Athiest nation” for that matter. It ensures that America is supposed to be a nation of Christians, Jews, Atheists, Muslims, etc.

At its very beginning.

Our rights were considered God given. The founders were saying that our freedoms were granted by God (or idea of God) a being or force greater than any man of group of men.

This isn’t to force Americans to consider themselves Christian, Just substitute “common sense”, or “Justice” or “morality” for God if you wish.

@gorillapaws Thankyou very much for the link. The Constitution was very specific in the separation of Church and State. I get into this discussion on a semi regular basis and did, again, last night.

@PacificRimjob Can you supply direct Constitutional or governmental evidence of this predating what I provided in my question? I am asking this question in all seriousness.

Declaration of Independence:

”.....that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights….”

Thanks @janbb

Beat me to it.

creator can mean all kinds of things, including every deity ever to be mentioned, from amaterasu over ra to zeus and odin

“the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion” – art. 11, treaty of tripoli, 1796

@janbb Thankyou. I am not certain that that would constitute a direct linking of the US with Christianity.

I take that as, whoever or whatever my Creator is, I am endowed with rights by it. It is not specifying which Creator. Again, I am not finding a direct link to the Christian deity and I am seeing the right for me to decide my religion, or lack thereof, for myself.

I found that supported in the Declaration of Independence itself:

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

The Laws of Nature and Nature’s God do not equal deity.

@ragingloli Thankyou. The problem with that one is that the Arabic version signed when the treaty was signed did not contain those words. That is why that particular quote is oft discarded.

@Arisztid I didn’t think you mentioned Christianity: I thought you asked about G-d. To me, Creator is synonymous with G-d, albeit not necessariy a Christian one. But I take your point and see in your last sentence that you are looking for Christian linkage.

@janbb Thankyou for pointing that out. I realize, after reading your answer, that I am not just looking for the Christian religion, rather all religion. The debate I get into is specifically about “Christian nation” but I would like to get any other religious reference. I edited my answer accordingly and wish I could edit that into the question.

I see how what you quoted led to deity but there is no deity specified. That seems, to me, to be saying that you (the generic “you”) can worship as you wish, whoever you wish, whatever you wish.

I say that I was created via evolution, the last participants in this creation being my parents, which is a non deist belief. To me, that says that I have the right in this nation to believe that.

I do think from reading and study that what you suggest is what Our Founders intended. There was a recent article in the Sunday New York Times Magazine by Russell Shorto about how the United States became a “Christian” nation. I didn’t read it all but I think it makes the same point. It was published within the last month; you might want to track it down.

It might be worth noting that most of the Founding Fathers, and the general religious thinking of the day tended much closer to deism than popular Chrisitan theology is today (not to say there aren’t all varieties/degrees of Christian Faith today). I don’t know if this is relevant or not.

@janbb I shall indeed.

@gorillapaws _“Deism (\ˈdi:iz(ə)m\[1] or \ˈdē-ˌi-zəm\)[2] is a religious and philosophical belief that a supreme being created the universe, and that this (and religious truth in general) can be determined using reason and observation of the natural world alone, without the need for either faith or organized religion.

That sounds about right from what I understand of the Founding Fathers personal beliefs, bearing in mind that I never actually knew them.

…

Great question. We are not a Christian nation, we are a nation of predominantly Christian citizens founded on religious freedom. I kind of remember that the person who wrote the song, Samuel Smith was a Reverend. I could be wrong. So, just another Christian injecting God into everything. JK. As you may know the famous Jewish songwriter Irving Berlin wrote God Bless America.

@JLeslie Thankyou much. :)

I did not know that Samuel Smith was a Reverend but I am not surprised. I also knew that Irving Berlin was Jewish. As far as Samuel Smith injecting Christianity into America, religion has been injected into so much as to be uncountable. It is not just Christianity either.

I cannot find any direct connection between any specific God and America before the 1800’s. With “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” being written in 1834, that might be the first linking of the two and it was not the official national anthem.

I guess that I would list the minting of that coin in 1864 as the first official start of this idea.

You should check me that Samuel Smith was reverend, if you are interested; that is from my memory, which lacks sometimes. I would guess that most of the Europeans who settled, and explores here were theists, even back to Columbus. God and religion was probably very important to them. History was my worst subject by the way. Better to give me a medical question or math problem.

@JLeslie I imagine that a lot of them believed in deity and some were religious but the big thing is America was based on freedom to worship, or not, as you wished.

History from that period is not my strong suit either. :P

@Arisztid I think the founders also understood that since we would be ruled by people who were voted in, it would be important to create a secular government, otherwise as populations shift, the government and country could lose the goals of its founders. If we really stick to our constitution, and the other ideals set forth, it should not matter if our majority is Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, because each person would still have the right to practice their religion, and separation of church and state would protect everyone from a religiously run government.

Take Israel for instance. The Arabs are multiplying at a much faster rate than the Jews. Eventually The Muslims will have significant voting power in Israel. So what does Israel do at that time? Stop being a democracy? Don’t get me wrong, I think the realty in the US is that if something besides Christianty really grew to be big in numbers, I think some of the Christians would be a little panicked here.

@JLeslie Agreed 100%. If something started to overtake Christianity in the US all hades would erupt.

@Arisztid Here is an old question of mine you might be interested in http://www.fluther.com/disc/64775/american-christians-would-you-feel-distressed-if-during-an-election-all/

@JLeslie Good question.

I wish I could remember the blokes name who get the US hooked, but it happened around the time of the ‘Great Depression’.... it’s his fault that Americans went all evangelical & nuts.

It was the Zeitgeist.

@Cloverfield If you do remember, please let me know. Now I am curious and shall also do some research into finding this person on my own.

@mattbrowne True that. It seems to me that, while it is still the Zeitgeist in the US, awareness of other religions and challenging the “America is a Christian nation” idea is becoming more prevalent. I may not like Obama but I do like that he is challenging the whole “Christian nation” thing and openly acknowledging other religions… or no religion.

Was that Bob Zeitgeist?

And whatever happened to @mattbrowne ?

And, finally, to answer your question it was in 1492 When Colombus landed in the New World. His first words, uttered to the first mate, were: “Jesus F*cking Christ!! Where the hell are we?” To which the first mate, Mateo, answered: “God only knows. Here, have a taco.”