Faith in God Requisite in Preservation of Freedom

I have recently had the opportunity to engage in discussion with so-called atheist capitalists who claim that to be a true capitalist one must shed faith in God. Today, I won’t go too much into that discussion, only to say that they are wrong and that religion plays huge roles in the pursuit of freedom. I will simply list a series of quotes by some of the greatest authorities on freedom in our history.

Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.
Ronald Reagan

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports….And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion….Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail to the exclusion of religious principle.

It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.
George Washington

I hold…that when we take a view of the universe in its parts, general or particular, it is impossible for the human mind not to percive and feel a conviction of design, consummate skill, and indefinite power in every atom of its composition.
Thomas Jefferson

That Being who gave me existence, and through almost threescore years has been continually showering his favors upon me, whose very chastisements have been blessings to me; can I doubt that he loves me? And, if he loves me, can I doubt that he will go on to take care of me, not only here but hereafter? This to some may seem presumption; to me it appears the best grounded hope: hope of the future, built on experience of the past.
Benjamin Franklin

Even those we consider less than religious because they rejected the religions of the day had some very interesting things to say regarding God and faith.

…truth will prevail over fanaticism, and the genuine doctrines of Jesus, so long perverted by his pseudo-priests, will again be restored to their original purity. This reformation will advance with the other improvements of the human mind, but too late for me to witness it.
Thomas Jefferson

…a revolution in the system of government would be followed by a revolution in the system of religion…man would return to the pure, unmixed, and unadulterated belief of one God and no more.
Thomas Paine

The Declaration of Independence invokes the existence of God 4 times.

1. …the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them…
2. …all men…are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…
3. …appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions…
4. …for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence…

The atheists with whom I have conversed all claim to reject mysticism and irrational thinking. They claim that if they cannot have physical proof that God exists, then He plainly does not exist. Yet, I echo the words Thomas Jefferson, and the Book of Mormon when I say, “I have all things as a witness that God exists.” It is irrational to see all these things and to deny His hand in them.