Comment on Benjamin Franklin

“ We should admire Him for His wisdom, fear Him for His power, and pray to Him for favor and protection; and this religion will be a powerful regulator of our actions, give us peace and tranquility within our minds, and render us benevolent, useful and beneficial to others.”

I find this quotation as a piece of advice given by B. Franklin to all of us. There is an opposition between the two elements: admiration and fear. Is it possible to admire someone and be afraid of him too? When speaking about God, I think yes, we can! As Franklin says, we should admire God for His wisdom. I agree with the fact that God is wisdom itself and this is proved to us by the entire creation. We should also fear Him without seeing Him as a bad God, but a just one. By power Franklin doesn’t mean physical strength, but God’s power to punish. It is said that God is our Father, and Franklin suggests us that we should also pray to Him. I see a prayer as a dialogue between me and God, and I know that I can ask Him anything I want. We can ask Him a favor or we can also ask Him for protection. He, Franklin, also admits that all these are religion, are institutional things. He puts the accent on the actions. Religion, as it is presented to us, means actions. Good actions. He says that “the religion”, not God will give us peace, and tranquility. Franklin thinks of religion as something benefic to us and to the others. I don’t agree with him at this point. I think God really hates religion. For me, religion is more political than a “religious” thing and history can prove that very well. If we look in the past, we will see that” religion” is that thing that separated the church. These rules imposed by man, are the real factor that separate Christians. Doing good to the others is a part of this entire work that we have to do on earth, but people think that this is all they have to do. God has left us only the 10 commandments, so those are the only rules we have to obey, in order to find the peace, and the tranquility, and the earthly happiness.   

In the same quotation, Benjamin Franklin speaks about some characteristics of God: wisdom, just, protector(pray Him for protection), listener (pray Him), love. People know God as a bad person who punish, and yes, Franklin speaks about that side of God, but more than this, God is Love. God is wisdom. God is Protector. The whole creation tells us these things. He is love, because He gave his Son to die for us, He gave us everything we need. He is wisdom, and the way He created things shows us that He is more than that, He is wisdom itself. He is Love. Franklins doesn’t  specify this quality of God, in this fragment, but let’s think of God as our father. A father that loves his child will protect him, will give him the feeling if peace. A father will try to take into account his son’s prayers, and favors, but besides all these, if the child does something wrong, and disobeys the rules of the family, of the house, the father will punish him. I also think that this is love. In spite of all the love he has for his son, a father should be just too. 

In conclusion I disagree with Franklin when he brings out the “religion” in this context, Placing God in this human politic stuff, but I agree with him when he speaks about the qualities of God.