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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (363508)	12/18/2007 10:30:19 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575737

Spurious quote busted! I see that Jefferson quotation is very popular with a certain crowd: Thomas Jefferson QuotesI do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature. Thomas Jefferson I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself ... www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/t/thomas_jefferson.html - 55k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this America: NOT a Christian Nation!Thomas Jefferson: "I have examined all the known superstitions of the word, ... find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. ... www.churchofsatan.org/america.html - 12k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this FAITH OF THE FOUNDERS -- AMERICANS DEBATE SEPARATION, RELIGIOUS ...The author was Thomas Jefferson, a Founder considered by many historians to ... find in our particular superstition (Christianity) one redeeming feature. ... www.atheists.org/flash.line/church10.htm - 20k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this That quotation is supposed to come from an undated letter to a Dr. Woods according to a book written by a John Remsburg. This Remsburg is one of those self-educated "freethinker" (aka anti-religious) lecturers and writers. Remsburg is not a reliable source and the quotation can't be tracked back to any real document written by Jefferson! Its bogus! See below: "'I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition [Christianity] one redeeming feature. They are all alike, founded upon fables and mythologies.' (Letter to Dr. Woods" This quote appears in the 1906 book Six Historic Americans by John E. Remsburg, which is archived on the infidels.org website. infidels.org [excerpt] In the following significant passage we have Jefferson's opinion of the Christian religion as a whole: "I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition [Christianity] one redeeming feature. They are all alike, founded upon fables and mythologies" (Letter to Dr. Woods). Could a more emphatic declaration of disbelief in Christianity be framed than this? [end excerpt] Remsburg included this alleged quotation of Jefferson in his second chapter on Thomas Jefferson. The quote may also be found at positiveatheism.org which quotes it as follows: I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition one redeeming feature. They are all alike, founded upon fables and mythologies. -- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Dr. Woods (undated), referring to "our particular superstition," Christianity, from John E Remsburg, Six Historic Americans: Thomas Jefferson, quoted from Franklin Steiner, Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents (1936), "Thomas Jefferson, Freethinker" It is offered as well by positiveatheism.org/ from Franklin Steiner's 1936 book Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents at positiveatheism.org [excerpt] Thomas Jefferson, Freethinker In a letter to Dr. Woods, he said: "I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition (Christianity) one redeeming feature. They are all alike, founded upon fables and mythology." [end excerpt] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- It appears as well on far too many other web sites to mention here. This quote has been presented in two different ways--one that it is a letter from Jefferson to a mysterious Dr. Wood, and other is that it is a letter from Jefferson to Peter Carr, but no dates or other source identification in either case. There are also two versions of the same quote--the version that appears above and a second version that includes a portion of some of Jefferson's actual writings from his "Notes on Virginia. So far, nobody has been able to trace this quotation back to any actual primary source material.The trail of evidence begins and ends with Remsburg's book. No other reference to this "Letter to Dr. Woods" can presently be located. We suggest no version of this quote be used and that it be considered bogus. candst.tripod.com