Atheist Billboard Makes Up Jefferson Quote by John Cassidy, OCR
A group of atheists called Backyard Skeptics is planning to unveil a billboard at 1545 Newport Blvd., Wednesday afternoon with a quote from Thomas Jefferson bashing Christianity.
The quote reads, “I do not find in Christianity one redeeming feature. It is founded on fables and mythology.”
There’s one problem: There’s no evidence Jefferson ever said it.
. . . The Jefferson Library knows of no letter to a Dr. Woods ever written by Jefferson, or of any appearance of the phrase anywhere in his writings.
On a page about spurious quotes attributed to Thomas Jefferson, the Jefferson Library writes: “We are asked about this one on a fairly regular basis. As with many spurious Jefferson quotes, it is frequently seen on various Internet sites. Many sites do not cite a source, but a good number of those that do attribute this quote to a letter from TJ to a ‘Dr. Wood.’
“As far as we know, TJ never wrote to an individual calling him/herself Dr. Wood. Another suspicious element is the statement that he does not find in Christianity ‘one redeeming feature.’ One presumes that Jefferson did, in fact, find some redeeming features in Christianity, otherwise he would not have taken the time to paste together his own versions of the Bible.”
If only these gullible New Atheists could be a little more sceptical . . .
