It is more important to look at the context in which the Founding Fathers dealt with religion compared to today.
There were several very bloody wars in recent European memory that centered on religion, including the Thirty Years War. These weren’t wars between Christianity and other religions, but within Christianity.
Also, at this time, several American states maintained official state churches; the First Amendment only applied to the Federal Government. Even if you were religious at the time, a secular federal government was seen as necessary to secure the republic; it would not be politically feasible to push all state churches into one church just like it would not be politically feasible to merge different states together as one unitary political unit.
Politically, an atheist would be less of a political danger to a Quaker than a Catholic would be, and everyone understood that.
It is more important to look at the context in which the Founding Fathers dealt with religion compared to today.
There were several very bloody wars in recent European memory that centered on religion, including the Thirty Years War. These weren’t wars between Christianity and other religions, but within Christianity.
Also, at this time, several American states maintained official state churches; the First Amendment only applied to the Federal Government. Even if you were religious at the time, a secular federal government was seen as necessary to secure the republic; it would not be politically feasible to push all state churches into one church just like it would not be politically feasible to merge different states together as one unitary political unit.
Politically, an atheist would be less of a political danger to a Quaker than a Catholic would be, and everyone understood that.