One of America’s greats was, like many men of his age, caught up in the intellectual movement called the Enlightenment, which took a dim view of Christianity and the Bible. Like Thomas Jefferson and others among the Founding Fathers, Franklin called himself a deist, believing in God but not believing Jesus was divine.
He wrote in his famous Autobiography that it was wise to “imitate Jesus and Socrates.” Like many Enlightenment thinkers, Franklin taught that “nature” (whatever that meant) was a better guide to life than the Bible. Even so, he also wrote that “no one ever did himself harm from reading the Book.”
