A Closer Examination Of Benjamin Franklin's Hierarchy Of Divine Beings As Well As The Supreme Creator And The Justification Of Their Continued Worship
A Closer Examination Of Benjamin Franklin's Hierarchy Of Divine Beings As Well As The Supreme Creator And The Justification Of Their Continued Worship
...is his stance on religion and his own personal beliefs. These religious views that he holds are quite unique and maybe even controversial when you consider the strong position of the Christian church in his day and the way these ideals were sort of looked over by his fellow Americans. This is important to consider because contrary religious ideals held by some of his fellow philosophers ruined their careers and reputations while his own religious ideals were sort of tolerated without much comment. His assertion that there was what could be called a hierarchy of divine beings below that of the Supreme Creator that we should pray and worship too was very unique when the classic Christian values were being taught and put forth as the proper religion of the majority of the American people. His justification for this claim is well thought out and reasoned when you consider the influence that the natural world had on him and his desire to see parallels in nature and his fellow citizen's lives.
In the "First Principles" he states that he believes that Man is not the most perfect Being and that since there are many Degrees of Beings his Inferiors, there must naturally be many Degrees of Being superior to him. Since Man must be very far from the Supreme Creator these Beings between Man and the Supreme Creator must be beings that he, the Infinite refers to as divine beings or Gods. It's these Gods that we should worship and pray to because the Supreme Creator isn't interested in our prayers because we are so below his notice. It would be better in his opinion to leave the prayers to these lower beings or Gods because they are better able to understand his Perfections than mortal man. The reason that Franklin is lead to make this conclusion is because he feels that there are so many suns and worlds out there in space that are like our own solar system it's safe to...
