"In the New Testament there is internal evidence
that parts of it have proceeded from an extraordinary man; and
that other parts are of the fabric of very inferior minds. It is
as easy to separate those parts, as to pick out diamonds from
dunghills."
..........To John
Adams, 1804
"But the greatest of all reformers of the
depraved religion
of his own country, was Jesus of Nazareth. Abstracting what is
really his
from the rubbish in which it is buried, easily distinguished by
its lustre
from the dross of his biographers, and as separable from that as
the diamond
from the dunghill, we have the outlines of a system of the most
sublime
morality which has ever fallen from the lips of man. The
establishment
of the innocent and genuine character of this benevolent
morality, and
the rescuing it from the imputation of imposture, which has
resulted from
artificial systems, invented by ultra-Christian sects (The
immaculate conception
of Jesus, his deification, the creation of the world by him, his
miraculous
powers, his resurrection and visible ascension, his corporeal
presence
in the Eucharist, the Trinity; original sin, atonement,
regeneration, election,
orders of the Hierarchy, etc.) is a most desirable object."
..........To W. Short, Oct. 31, 1819
"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 mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks
calling themselves the priests of Jesus."
.......... To Van
der Kemp, 1816
"The Christian god is a three headed monster, cruel, vengeful, and capricious. If one wishes to know more of this raging, three headed beast-like god, one only needs to look at the caliber of people who say they serve him. They are always of two classes: fools and hypocrites."
"I do not find in orthodox Christianity one
redeeming
feature."
"It is too late in the day for men of sincerity
to pretend they believe in the Platonic mysticisms that three
are one, and one is three; and yet that the one is not three,
and the three are not one . . . But this constitutes the craft,
the power and the profit of the priests. Sweep away their
gossamer fabrics of factitious religion, and they would catch no
more flies. We should all then, like the Quakers, live without
an order of priests, moralize for ourselves, follow the oracle
of conscience, and say nothing about what no man can understand,
nor therefore believe."
..........To John
Adams, 1813
"Christianity...(has become) the most perverted system that ever shone on man. ...Rogueries, absurdities and untruths were perpetrated upon the teachings of Jesus by a large band of dupes and importers led by Paul, the first great corrupter of the teaching of Jesus."
I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act
of the
whole American people which declared that their legislature
should "make
no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting
the free
exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between
church and
state.
..........Letter to the Danbury Baptist
Association,
January 1, 1802
"Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting the word "Jesus Christ," so that it should read, 'a departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;' the insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and Infidel of every denomination."
"When we see religion split into so many
thousands of
sects, and I may say Christianity itself divided into it's
thousands also,
who are disputing, anathematizing, and where the laws permit,
burning and
torturing one another for abstractions which no one of them
understand,
and which are indeed beyond the comprehension of the human mind,
into which
of the chambers of this Bedlam would a man wish to thrust
himself. The
sum of all religion as expressed by it's best preacher, 'fear
god and love
thy neighbor,' contains
no mystery, needs no explanation - but this wont
do.
It gives no scope to make dupes; priests could not live by it."
..........Letter to George Logan, November 12,
1816
"In every country and every age, the priest has
been hostile
to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot ... they
have perverted
the purest religion ever preached to man into mystery and
jargon, unintelligible
to all mankind, and therefore the safer engine for their
purpose."
..........To Horatio Spafford, March 17, 1814
"Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent
men, women
and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been
burnt,
tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced an 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."
.........."Notes on Virginia"
"Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices,
under
which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in
her seat,
and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question
with boldness
even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must
more approve
of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear."
..........To Peter Carr, Aug. 10, 1787
"It is too late in the day for men of sincerity
to pretend
they believe in the Platonic mysticisms that three are one, and
one is
three; and yet that the one is not three, and the three are not
one. But
this constitutes the craft, the power and the profit of the
priests."
..........To John Adams, 1803
"But a short time elapsed after the death of the
great
reformer of the Jewish religion, before his principles were
departed from
by those who professed to be his special servants, and perverted
into an
engine for enslaving mankind, and aggrandizing their oppressors
in Church
and State."
..........To S. Kercheval, 1810
"History I believe furnishes no example of a
priest-ridden
people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the
lowest grade
of ignorance, of which their political as well as religious
leaders will
always avail themselves for their own purpose."
..........To Baron von Humboldt, 1813
"On the dogmas of religion, as distinguished from
moral
principles, all mankind, from the beginning of the world to this
day, have
been quarreling, fighting, burning and torturing one another,
for abstractions
unintelligible to themselves and to all others, and absolutely
beyond the
comprehension of the human mind."
..........To Carey, 1816
"It is not to be understood that I am with him
(Jesus
Christ) in all his doctrines. I am a Materialist; he takes the
side of
Spiritualism; he preaches the efficacy of repentance toward
forgiveness
of sin; I require a counterpoise of good works to redeem it.
Among the
sayings and discourses imputed to him 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. I separate,
therefore, the gold
from the dross; restore him to the former, and leave the latter
to the
stupidity of some, the roguery of others of his disciples. Of
this band
of dupes and imposters, Paul was the great Coryphaeus, and the
first corruptor
of the doctrines of Jesus."
..........To W. Short, 1820
"The office of reformer of the superstitions of a
nation,
is ever more dangerous. Jesus had to work on the perilous
confines of reason
and religion; and a step to the right or left might place him
within the
grasp of the priests of the superstition, a bloodthirsty race,
as cruel
and remorseless as the being whom they represented as the family
God of
Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, and the local God of Israel.
That Jesus
did not mean to impose himself on mankind as the son of God,
physically
speaking, I have been convinced by the writings of men more
learned than
myself in that lore."
..........To Story, Aug. 4, 1820
"The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all
to the
happiness of man. But compare with these the demoralizing dogmas
of Calvin.
1. That there are three Gods.
2. That good works, or the love of our neighbor,
is nothing.
3. That faith is every thing, and the more
incomprehensible
the proposition, the more merit the faith.
4. That reason in religion is of unlawful use.
5. That God, from the beginning, elected certain
individuals
to be saved, and certain others to be damned; and that no crimes
of the
former can damn them; no virtues of the latter save."
..........To Benjamin Waterhouse, Jun. 26, 1822
"Creeds have been the bane of the Christian
church ...
made of Christendom a slaughter-house."
..........To Benjamin Waterhouse, Jun. 26, 1822
"The truth is, that the greatest enemies of the
doctrine
of Jesus are those, calling themselves the expositors of them,
who have
perverted them to the structure of a system of fancy absolutely
incomprehensible,
and without any foundation in his genuine words. 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."
..........To John Adams, Apr. 11, 1823
"The metaphysical insanities of Athanasius, of
Loyola,
and of Calvin, are, to my understanding, mere lapses into
polytheism, differing
from paganism only by being more unintelligible."
..........To Jared Sparks, 1820
John Adams
"As I understand the Christian religion, it was,
and is,
a revelation. But how has it happened that millions of fables,
tales, legends,
have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that
have made
them the most bloody religion that ever existed?"
..........To F.A. Van der Kamp, Dec. 27, 1816
"I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to
the most
fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of
mankind has preserved--the
Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has
produced!"
..........To Thomas Jefferson
"What havoc has been made of books through every
century
of the Christian era? Where are fifty gospels, condemned as
spurious by
the bull of Pope Gelasius? Where are the forty wagon-loads of
Hebrew manuscripts
burned in France, by order of another pope, because suspected of
heresy?
Remember the 'index expurgatorius', the inquisition, the stake,
the axe,
the halter and the guillotine."
..........To John Taylor
Abraham Lincoln
"The bible is not my book and Christianity is not my religion. I could never give assent to the long complicated statements of Christian dogma."
"My earlier views of the unsoundness of the Christian scheme of salvation and the human origin of the scriptures, have become clearer and stronger with advancing years and I see no reason for thinking I shall ever change them."
Benjamin
Franklin
"The nearest I can make it out, 'Love your
enemies' means,
'Hate your Friends'."
The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of
reason.
-- Poor Richard's Almanack, 1758
"If we look back into history for the character of the present sects in Christianity, we shall find few that have not in their turns been persecutors, and complainers of persecution. The primitive Christians thought persecution extremely wrong in the Pagans, but practiced it on one another. The first Protestants of the Church of England blamed persecution in the Romish Church, but practiced it upon the Puritans. They found it wrong in Bishops, but fell into the practice themselves both here (England) and in New England."
"As to Jesus of Nazareth...I think the system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have, with most of the present dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity."
"I think vital religion has always suffered when
orthodoxy
is more regarded than virtue. The scriptures assure me that at
the last
day we shall not be examined on what we thought but what we
did."
..........Letter to his father, 1738
"I cannot conceive otherwise than that He, the
Infinite
Father, expects or requires no worship or praise from us, but
that He is
even infinitely above it."
.........."Articles of Belief and Acts of
Religion",
Nov. 20, 1728
"I wish it (Christianity) were more productive of
good
works ... I mean real good works ... not holy-day keeping,
sermon-hearing
... or making long prayers, filled with flatteries and
compliments despised
by wise men, and much less capable of pleasing the Deity."
..........Works, Vol. VII, p. 75
James Madison
"Every new and successful example therefore of a
perfect
separation between ecclesiastical and civil matters, is of
importance"
..........James Madison, 1822, Writings, 9:101
"Strongly guarded as is the separation between
Religion
and Government in the Constitution of the United States, the
danger of
encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies, may be illustrated by
precedents
already furnished in their short history"
..........James Madison, undated, William and Mary
Quarterly,
1946, 3:555
"Religion and government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together."
"What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical
establishments
had on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a
spiritual
tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; on many instances
they have
been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny; in no
instance have
they been the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers
who wish
to subvert the public liberty may have found an established
clergy convenient
auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and
perpetuate it,
needs them not."
.........."A Memorial and Remonstrance", 1785
"Experience witnesseth that ecclesiastical
establishments,
instead of maintaining the purity and efficacy of religion, have
had a
contrary operation. During almost fifteen centuries has the
legal establishment
of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or
less,
in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and
servility
in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution."
..........."A Memorial and Remonstrance", 1785
"The appropriation of funds of the United States
for the
use and support of religious societies, [is] contrary to the
article of
the Constitution which declares that 'Congress shall make no law
respecting
a religious establishment'"
..........James Madison, 1811, Writings, 8:133
Thomas Paine
"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church."
"All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit."
"I would not dare to so dishonor my Creator God by attaching His name to that book (the Bible)."
"It is the duty of every true Deist to vindicate the moral justice of God against the evils of the Bible."
"Among the most detestable villains in history, you could not find one worse than Moses. Here is an order, attributed to 'God' to butcher the boys, to massacre the mothers and to debauch and rape the daughters. I would not dare so dishonor my Creator's name by (attaching) it to this filthy book (the Bible)."
"Accustom a people to believe that priests and clergy can forgive sins...and you will have sins in abundance."
"The Christian church has set up a religion of pomp and revenue in pretended imitation of a person (Jesus) who lived a life of poverty."
