Jesuit Connection To Benjamin Franklin

Ben Franklin

Franklin elaborates on his faith in a letter to the president of Yale University, only one month before Franklin’s death. In the letter he says the divinity of Jesus is a trivial matter and that he doubts Jesus was divine. In essence, his doubt is a confirmation of denial, because a person either believes or they do not believe:

“As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see, but I apprehend it has received various corrupt changes, and I have, with most of the present dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity, and I think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon and opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble.” (Carl Van Doren, Benjamin Franklin, New York: The Viking Press, 1938, p. 777)