Was Abraham Lincoln an agnostic?

Question:I read that Lincoln did not believe in god. Was he an atheist or agnostic?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I read that Lincoln did not believe in god. Was he an atheist or agnostic?

agnostic

See below. Lincoln was a Humanist and believed in the laws of nature..

This is first I've ever heard about it. Lincoln made many references to "the Almighty" in speeches.

Considerable uncertainty arises... when Lincoln's own religion is examined... it is obvious that Christianity exerted a profound influence on his life. His father was a member of Regular Baptist churches in Kentucky and Indiana. Lincoln himself read the Bible throughout his life, quoted from it extensively... during his years as president he did regularly attend the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington. On the other hand, Lincoln never joined a church nor ever made a clear profession of standard Christian beliefs... Lincoln's friend Jesse Fell [suggested that Lincoln's views on Christian theology] were not orthodox... It is probable that Lincoln was turned against organized Christianity by his experiences as a young man in New Salem, Illinois, where excessive emotion and bitter sectarian quarrels marked yearly camp meetings and the ministry of traveling preachers. Yet although Lincoln was not a church member, he did ponder the eternal significance of his own circumstances...

Although neither Abraham Lincoln nor George Washington were ever atheists, the "Positive Atheism" website presents some other writings about the religious beliefs and practices of these two presidents at: http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/stei...

gatita_63109

"The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God can not be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party—and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect His purpose. I am almost ready to say this is probably true—that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end yet. By his mere quiet power, on the minds of the now contestants, He could have either saved or destroyed the Union without a human contest. Yet the contest began. And having begun He could give the final victory to either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds."

--Abraham Lincoln

I would say that he was a Christian. Perhaps not as most would identify them-as those spouting religion and not the realities that Christians face-when hope waivers, when death comes, when war rips apart a nation........ I would say that he was a real man and like real men he questioned God a time or two. That being said, a person can't know what real faith is until they look for it.

I'm sure he believed in God. He and his wife were really into being spiritualist and had seances in the Whitehouse all the time. A lot of people in those days were spiritualist, and I think if you know for a certainty that an afterlife exist, the way Lincoln must have, then I think you're predisposed to believe in God, also.

No. Its a fraud.

Usually I don't answer questions without writing out something long, but. . . well, people above me have already given quotes.