(September 19, 2011 at 8:26 pm)ElDinero Wrote: I'm not saying he wasn't, and the point isn't really that important anyway. It's just you can find quotes about tons of historical figures to prove they were an atheist/deist/theist, so I try not to read too much into them.
He also said 'Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it' so it's difficult to be conclusive unless someone is extremely outspoken and explicit about their beliefs.
Edit: He also said this:
Quote:We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
There is a great difference between Lincoln as a public speaker and Lincoln as a private individual. In order to motivate the inert masses, some godspeak goes a long way. I sincerely doubt Lincoln was foolish enough to believe in a god. He was a realistic man in a surreal time.
Trying to update my sig ...
