Thomas Jefferson quote against religion

[Complexity]

Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned: yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth. Let us reflect that it is inhabited by a thousand millions of people. That these profess probably a thousand different systems of religion. That ours is but one of that thousand. That if there be but one right, and ours that one, we should wish to see the 999 wandering sects gathered into the fold of truth. But against such a majority we cannot effect this by force. Reason and persuasion are the only practicable instruments. To make way for these, free inquiry must be indulged; and how can we wish others to indulge it while we refuse it ourselves. But every state, says an inquisitor, has established some religion. "No two, say I, have established the same". Is this a proof of the infallibility of establishments? Our sister states of Pennsylvania and New York, however, have long subsisted without any establishment at all.

Thomas Jefferson

Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XVII, 1781-83

 

[154]

"The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of man."

"The practice of morality being necessary for the well being of society, He [God] has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain. We all agree in the obligation of the moral principles of Jesus and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in His discourses."

"I am a Christian in the only sense in which He wished anyone to be: sincerely attached to His doctrines in preference to all others."

"I am a real Christian – that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ."

Thomas Jefferson

 

[Resume]

"The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of man."

"The practice of morality being necessary for the well being of society, He [God] has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain. We all agree in the obligation of the moral principles of Jesus and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in His discourses."

"I am a Christian in the only sense in which He wished anyone to be: sincerely attached to His doctrines in preference to all others."

"I am a real Christian – that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ."

Thomas Jefferson

" . . . the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."

Thomas Jefferson in the Treaty of Tripoli.

 

[154]

Uh-oh... it seems we might have some of those pesky apparent contradictions... what to do, what to do?

 

[Manopolus]

Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-Thomas Jefferson (Notes on Virginia, 1782)

Say nothing of my religion. It is known to my god and myself alone.
-- Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to John Adams, 11 January 1817, in Lester Cappon, ed. The Adams-Jefferson Letters, (1959) p. 506.

I am of a sect by myself, as far as I know.
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Ezra Stiles Ely (June 25, 1819),

Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr, August 10, 1787

I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Francis Hopkinson, March 13, 1789

Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them; and no man ever had a distinct idea of the trinity. It is the mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of Jesus."

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Francis Adrian Van der Kemp, 30 July, 1816

My opinion is that there would never have been an infidel, if there had never been a priest. The artificial structures they have built on the purest of all moral systems, for the purpose of deriving from it pence and power, revolts those who think for themselves, and who read in that system only what is really there.

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Mrs. Samuel H. Smith, August, 6, 1816

Among the sayings and discourses imputed to him [Jesus] by his biographers, I find many passages of fine imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely benevolence; and others again of so much ignorance, so much absurdity, so much untruth, charlatanism, and imposture, as to pronounce it impossible that such contradictions should have proceeded from the same being.

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Short, April 13, 1820

Mr. Jefferson wrote a lot of things.

 

[Resume]

Uh-oh... it seems we might have some of those pesky apparent contradictions... what to do, what to do?

Well, one of the things we could do would be to recognize that Jefferson was most likely a deist, not a theist and while perhaps admiring some of Christ's teachings, Jefferson rejected any claims to Christ's divinity.

Or we could quote-mine all night.

 

[Manopolus]

Uh-oh... it seems we might have some of those pesky apparent contradictions... what to do, what to do?

Please note that T.J. was, in fact, a politician. Some of what he said publicly was most likely what the public required of him.

Also note that he wrote his own version of The Bible which left out all the hocus pocus, leaving only what he found morally correct. When he said he was a true Christian he really wasn't even saying that he believed in the Christian God... he was talking about moral philosophy in The Bible, including parables, etc. He read The Bible as an ethical philosophy, not as a religious doctrine. Also, note from my quotes above, he also found parts of the book repulsive.

 

[paximperium]

Uh-oh... it seems we might have some of those pesky apparent contradictions... what to do, what to do?

What contradictions?
Do elaborate.
Do tell of the EXACT points and context he was making with these quotes you have provided.

 

[uruk]

Uh-oh... it seems we might have some of those pesky apparent contradictions... what to do, what to do?

Jefferson liked the teachings of Jesus as a moral guide. He did not, however, believe Jesus was divine or the son of god. He mentions this several times in his letters to Adams, Franklin, and others.

I believe that beliving Jesus is the son of god is a necessary tennant of being a christian. Jefferson was not christian in that sense.

Read the Jeffersonian bible. Nowhere does it mention any of the miracles or the divinity of christ. It contains only his moral teachings.

Most of our founding fathers believed that it was more important to be a good person than a good (insert religion here)

 

[Wowbagger]

Jefferson liked the teachings of Jesus as a moral guide. He did not, however, believe Jesus was divine or the son of god.

This.

Some evidence:

He edited his own version of the Bible to remove the divine stuff, and focus on the moral philosphical teachings of Jesus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Bible

 

[Cactus Wren]

"The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of man."

"The practice of morality being necessary for the well being of society, He [God] has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain. We all agree in the obligation of the moral principles of Jesus and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in His discourses."

"I am a Christian in the only sense in which He wished anyone to be: sincerely attached to His doctrines in preference to all others."

"I am a real Christian – that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ."

Thomas Jefferson

"And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter."

 

[paximperium]

This.

Some evidence:

He edited his own version of the Bible to remove the divine stuff, and focus on the moral philosphical teachings of Jesus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Bible

I especially love the ending.

 

[laca]

"The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of man."

"The practice of morality being necessary for the well being of society, He [God] has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain. We all agree in the obligation of the moral principles of Jesus and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in His discourses."

"I am a Christian in the only sense in which He wished anyone to be: sincerely attached to His doctrines in preference to all others."

"I am a real Christian – that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ."

Thomas Jefferson

Do you really think this quote-mining is in any way a worthy answer to the well-reasoned argument made in the OP? Think again.

Thanks for the quote, Complexity.

 

[Freethinker]

"I am a real Christian – that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ."

IMO, that is more an indictment of Christianity than a declaration of Jefferson's theism.

 

[Cainkane1]

Uh-oh... it seems we might have some of those pesky apparent contradictions... what to do, what to do?

Thomas Jefferson used the bible as an example and used a lot of contradictions.

 

[KingMerv00]

Quote-fests are strange. There is often the implied assumption that the quoted individual did not change over their lifetime. The quotes from my youth would be very different from my quotes today.

 

[zooterkin]

"And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter."

I think I've seen that somewhere before...

 

[kedo1981]

TJ was one of the smartest human beings to walk the planet
His visions for this country are still relevant after 200 years
He was way ahead of his time
And he liked to bang hot black chics
How cool is that?????
Yet he would be completely un-electable today

 

[Complexity]

Do you really think this quote-mining is in any way a worthy answer to the well-reasoned argument made in the OP? Think again.

Thanks for the quote, Complexity.

Most welcome.

I saw it in a blog post today and knew that a thread was called for.

 

[Complexity]

154 - The quotes you posted suggests only that Jefferson found something of value in Jesus's life and speeches, not that he regarded him as divine, or that there was a god, or that he found anything worthwhile in the followers or the fleecers of the followers of the man.

All but the second of your posted quotes are consistent with an atheistic Jefferson, and the second smells like words for a public occasion full of xians.