We are all aware that Thomas Jefferson was one of the more skeptical founding fathers when it came to Christianity and religion. However, many might find it surprising to see that Jefferson found it inconceivable to think that there is no design or designer in nature (of course, he was pre-Darwin ;):
I hold (without appeal to revelation) that when we take a view of the Universe, in its parts general or particular, it
is impossible for the human mind not to perceive and feel a conviction
of design, consummate skill, and indefinite power in every atom of its
composition. (emphasis added)
The
movements of the heavenly bodies, so exactly held in their course by
the balance of centrifugal and centripetal forces, the structure of our
earth itself, with its distribution of lands, waters and atmosphere,
animal and vegetable bodies, examined in all their minutest particles,
insects mere atoms of life, yet as perfectly organised as man or
mammoth, the mineral substances, their generation and uses, it is
impossible, I say, for the human mind not to believe that there is, in
all this, design, cause and effect, up to an ultimate cause, a
fabricator of all things from matter and motion, their preserver and
regulator while permitted to exist in their present forms, and their
regenerator into new and other forms.
