Was Benjamin Franklin an atheist

Answer 1

No. Franklin was never an atheist. For a short time period in his youth, he dabbled in Deism which is the belief that God created everything but then abandoned His creation to its own devices. But Franklin soon found this view to be impractical, and by the time he was 29, he had become a Christian. At that age, Franklin wrote:

"I am conscious I believe in Christ, and exert my best Endeavours to understand his Will aright, and strictly to follow it."

And:

"Christ by his Death and Sufferings has purchas'd for us those easy Terms and Conditions of our Acceptance with God, propos'd in the Gospel, to wit, Faith and Repentance."

The full context of these quotes can be found in The Christian Pamphlets of Benjamin Franklin which is available from Amazon.

Answer 2

This is a fairly hotly debated point, probably it's closer to say he was a skeptical agnostic.

Answer 3

maybe

ps. he believed in god