(Most (if not all) of the facts/statistics/quotes reproduced here are via David Galbraith)

Percentage of Americans who identified themseves as ‘church members’:

1776: 17%
1990: 62%

The percentages for Great Britain are almost exactly identical, only in reverse. It’s 10% now and 70% during Victorian Britain.

I have never thought about it before until I read it stated by Galbraith, “It is possible that Christianity in America today is a form of nationalism rather than spiritualism, rather like Victorian Britain.”

And finally some quotes by our very Atheist sounding founding fathers:

“God is an essence we know nothing of, until this awful blasphemy is got rid of, there will never be any liberal science in the world.”
John Adams US President 1797 - 1801

“The clergy believe that any power confided in me will be exerted in opposition to their schemes - and they believe rightly.”
Thomas Jefferson US President 1801 - 1809

“I have seldom met an intelligent person whose views were not narrowed and distorted by religion.”
James Buchanan US President 1857 - 1861

“My earlier views on the unsoundness of the Christian scheme of salvation have become clearer and stronger with advancing years.”
Abraham Lincoln US President 1861 - 1865

This isn’t really surprising, knowing that America was founded upon the philosophies of the French Enlightenment, but it goes against everything that most of the country now believes.

God can be so confusing.