In the only two places in the Constitution where religion is discussed (first line in the First Amendment and Para.3 of Article VI), the first eliminates the validation (establishment) religion receives from the Government and the second then removes religion's influence over authority imbued upon the Offices of Government.
Article VI Paragraph 3:
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.
First line of the First Amendment:
Amendment 1 - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression. Ratified 12/15/1791.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment [in the sense of validation] of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
In the Declaration of Independence which is not a governing document but an announcement, a declaration, to foreign nations of this nation's proclaimed sovereignty. A deity is mentioned twice. Both of which are in reference to the deistic deity prevalent in the Enlightenment era. The first equates Natures God to and parallels this deity's "Laws" with the Laws of Nature. Definitely not the Christian Old Testament deity of the Protestant English which was an important point for the Founding Fathers to make. As is apparent in the following:
"...and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them,..."
Giving top billing to the Laws of Nature is definitely a stroke of genius, but calling this deity "Natures God" as opposed to the author's God, or Europe's God, or Almighty God, or even the Lord God is rock solid evidence that it isn't the Christian God, but more closely related to Aristotle's Prime Mover or some Deistic Creator force. Which brings us to the second mention of a deity.
"...that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,..."
Recalling that nowhere in the Christian Bible are unalienable Rights mentioned, let alone elucidated, I would conclude that this Creator is none other than Nature's God from the opening paragraph. And, considering that Thomas Jefferson had been the key attorney in the court ruling holding that England's Common Law was not derived from scripture, it is obvious that this scripture is not the origin of the Rights he, as the author, had in mind. Again, showing that this Nation is in no way a Christian Nation.
But, their are two key phrases in the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution that more than make this quite clear, yet they are seldom discussed, and the first, from the Declaration of Independence, is:
"That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed,..."
Governments as institutions of men, meaning not divinely ordained, but deriving their powers of authority from the consent of the people is in stark contrast to that garnered from the absolute divine authority of the Christian deity. The same deity which had ordained, sanctioned, so many despots of Europe.
Then the last phrase is from the Preamble of The Constitution and it is the clearest of all:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
"We the People ...to... secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves ... do ordain and establish..."
Nowhere in this document is the idea of a Christian deity in evidence. In fact, the word God is never used in the whole of the Constitution. It is, We the People who possess the authority from which our Government derives its power. It is We the People who "ordain and establish" the authority of the Constitution to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves. It is not ordained by some deity. This concept is a crowning achievement of the Enlightenment Era. And the reason our Founding Fathers are considered Giants of the Age of Enlightenment.
Which makes Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli 1797:
"As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion..."
as unanimously ratified by the U.S. Senate and signed by President John Adams, seem almost redundant. This does show conclusively that these United States owe no quarter to those claiming the sanctity of religions are to be in any sense respected as part of our secular legislation. For they are in effect attempting to take the authority of We the People away from the US.
Beachbum's Mountain View
