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His self-identification is important. Franklin notes that he read anti-deism works in his youth, so he formulated some sort of idea as to what it was. Second, a careful reading of his creed reveals his deist leanings. He thinks that there is a god, but he does not identify who or what this god may be. Franklin, as I indicate does approve of Christianty, but does not seem to be one, refrenceing the second part of his creed and his converstions with George Whitefield.--[[User:1048247|1048247]] 15:42, 9 May 2007 (EDT)
 
His self-identification is important. Franklin notes that he read anti-deism works in his youth, so he formulated some sort of idea as to what it was. Second, a careful reading of his creed reveals his deist leanings. He thinks that there is a god, but he does not identify who or what this god may be. Franklin, as I indicate does approve of Christianty, but does not seem to be one, refrenceing the second part of his creed and his converstions with George Whitefield.--[[User:1048247|1048247]] 15:42, 9 May 2007 (EDT)
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:And, I repeat... this is not a rhetorical question, I did some superficial due diligence some weeks ago but have no expertise in Franklin... where did he call himself "a deist" in mature adult life? As with Christianity, my (superficial) impression is that he approves of many things in deism, but it's not clear to me that he was a deist.  
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:And, I repeat... this is not a rhetorical question, I did some superficial due diligence some weeks ago but have no expertise in Franklin... where did he call himself "a deist" in mature adult life? As with Christianity, my (superficial) impression is that he approves of many things in deism, but it's not clear to me that he was a deist as the term was used then.  
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:And you haven't addressed the terminology question. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 16:13, 9 May 2007 (EDT)
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:And you haven't addressed the terminology question. Is it fair to call him a deist, or even to say "he called himself a 'deist'" without qualification, if he wasn't a deist as the term is used today? [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 16:13, 9 May 2007 (EDT)
    
=="Ben and Me"==
 
=="Ben and Me"==
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