Thomas Jefferson

[jduster]

Religious people like paint him as a devoutly religious person, which he wasn't.  He used the word God often, but he wasn't referring to God in the context that Christians understand it in.

Some atheists often paint Jefferson as a hardcore atheist, which is wrong too.

He was a deist.  He questioned the authority of God, but never rejected it altogether.

[Will]

Yep. the best example of this was the Jefferson Bible, an edit of the story of Jesus that omits all supernatural aspects.

[Sophus]

Yep. the best example of this was the Jefferson Bible, an edit of the story of Jesus that omits all supernatural aspects.

This is true, but was the the removal of miracles a deliberate intention or, as some argue, just the natural effect of focusing only on the moral substance of the stories?

[Thumpalumpacus]

Taking the superstition out of, say, the Resurrection would seem to cripple its moral point.

[notself]

There is no Resurrection in the Jefferson Bible.  It ends:

62 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.
    63 There laid they Jesus,
    64 And rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.

http://www.angelfire.com/co/JeffersonBible/

[Sophus]

Taking the superstition out of, say, the Resurrection would seem to cripple its moral point.

That makes sense.