Voice: It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god.

It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg.

[Thomas Jefferson] [Bell ringing] Narrator: Most of the revolutionaries belonged to Protestant denominations, but there were Catholics and Jews among them, too, as well as Muslims, whose faith had crossed the Atlantic on slave ships.

Central to the philosophy of some of the most influential creators of the United States was their belief in a Supreme Being but one who did not interfere in the affairs of men or distinguish between faiths.

They were deists, and they believed it was each individual's responsibility to lead a virtuous life, which could only come from tolerance and a lifetime of learning: the pursuit of happiness.

♪ Man: The revolutionaries believed that the American people would have to be educated.

Without education, there could be no virtue in the populace, and without virtue in the populace, the government would fail.

Republics are based on authority coming from the bottom up, not like monarchies from the top down.

So you require an educated, virtuous-- they use that term over and over, drawing it from antiquity-- virtuous population to sustain a republican government.

Voice: Our sister states of Pennsylvania and New York have long subsisted without any established religion at all.

They have made the happy discovery that the way to silence religious disputes is to take no notice of them.

Let us, too, give this experiment fair play.

Thomas Jefferson.

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