富兰克林的另一个信念是,上帝只能全善,因为他创造了人,大多数情况下,至善。“如果他是全能的,可以没有现有的或代理在宇宙中反对或不同意,他同意必须很好,因为他是好的;因此邪恶不存在”(富兰克林,26)。清教教义,上帝是强大的和良好的富兰克林认为,神必须善良,因为善良的神只会创建一个至善的世界,而不是创造一些反对他。所以,他们的人性假设是真正腐败是不正确的,因为上帝不会创造邪恶的人类,如果他是一个好上帝。人类的一般道德也使上帝的爱和怜悯所有个人,不仅那些注定去天堂。
最后富兰克林早期的自然神论和清教主义的区别是圣经的重要性。他对自然神论的兴趣增加了,他开始读书,支持和驳斥了自然神论。“一些书对自然神论(自然神论认为,有一个神,而不是基督教的神,耶稣是一个明智的人,圣经主要寓言)落入我的handsa¦”(富兰克林,26)。反对自然神论只加强了他的信念,他开始质疑圣经。“我发现他们有争议我读不同的书,我开始怀疑启示本身(他质疑如果圣经是上帝的话语)”(富兰克林,25 – 26)。显然,富兰克林认为,《圣经》是一个神圣的文本不像清教徒。他认为这只是一本书,寓言,帮助一个人帮助他生活中吸取教训。此外,奇迹没有吸引他,因为,正如之前提到的,他只是认为它是一本书。没有在他的神圣
纽卡斯尔大学论文代写:自然神论
Another of Franklin’s beliefs was that God could only be all-good since he created humans who were, mostly, all-good. “If He is all-powerful, there can be nothing either existing or acting in the Universe against or without his Consent; and what He consents to must be good, because He is good; therefore Evil doth not exist” (Franklin, 26). Puritan dogmas that God was powerful and good made Franklin argue that God had to be all-good because an all-good God would only create an all-good world and not create something to oppose him. So, their assumption that human nature was genuinely corrupt was incorrect because God would not create evil human beings if he was a good God. The general morality of humans also caused God to love and have mercy on all individuals, not just on those who were predestined to go to Heaven.
The last difference between Franklin’s early Deism and Puritanism was the importance of the Bible. As his interest in Deism increased, he began to read books that support and refuted Deism. “Some books against Deism [Deism argued that there is a god, but not a Christian God; Jesus was a wise man and the Bible mostly fables] fell into my hands…” (Franklin, 26). The arguments against Deism only strengthened his beliefs as he began to question the Bible. “¦as I found them disputed in the different books I read, I began to doubt of Revelation itself [he questioned if the Bible was the word of God]” (Franklin, 25-26). Clearly, Franklin did not hold the Bible as a sacred text like the Puritans. He believed that it was just a book with fables that helped a person learn lessons that would help him in life. Also, the miracles did not appeal to him because, as stated before, he just thought of it as a book. Nothing was sacred about it in his