Selective quotes aside, I believe the Founders (except for Ben Franklin) would describe themselves as "enlightened" Christians, who aspired to the best of what Christ said should be the goals of all of us. Most of them had disdain for the nonsense that accompanied the dogma of "organized" religion, but were admittedly not religious scholars. <br /><br />I strongly recommend reading "The 5,000 Year Leap", which traces the origins of American political philosophy from pre-Christian moral precepts to what motivated the thinking of the Founders. Cicero, the Roman philosopher who died before Christ was born, first and best stated what we espouse as human "rights" endowed by whatever force created us. Cicero logically claimed that certain behaviors were unopposed by nature, and could only be limited by force applied by other humans. Absent the dogma of organized faith, this is part of the basis of Deist belief, with the other components being an observation that since nature favors positive behavior with positive results, a positive force may be ascribed to the mystery of why we exist.