Benjamin Franklin

Franklin writes a great deal about religion and morality, but for some readers it’s difficult to say exactly what Franklin’s ideas about religion and morality are, or rather it seems like his ideas are contradictory. For example, he stops going to church, but he continues to make contributions to the church; he doesn’t seem to like organized religion, but he doesn’t want to criticize it publicly; his 13 steps to “moral perfection” seem to be more about worldly things than spiritual or even moral things.What do you think? Overall, are Franklin’s ideas about religion and morality consistent, or are they inconsistent? In deciding how to answer, re-read two passages that seem to offer a key to Franklin’s thinking on this topic, and make sure to discuss the idea in these passages, in your post: the idea appears first about 1/3 down p 259 (beginning, “Revelation had indeed no weight with me…”) and then about 1/3 of down p 283 (beginning, “In this Piece it was my Design…”) Note: In these two passages, when Franklin writes about “Revelation,” he is not referring to the Biblical Book of Revelation, but rather to the belief–which he did not share–that much of the Bible contained “the revealed word of God to man.” That is, Franklin believed that the Bible was written by men, even those parts that are presented as the word of Gods, angels, etc.