Jefferson on "The Unthinking Part of mankind....."

It's been another busy week so I haven't finished the second part of what I'm working on.  Since what can be taken as the first part of this series, posing the full version of Madison's Memorial and Remonstrance, one of the documents most frequently lied about in atheist discourse was put up last year, some of these things take me a while to complete.   In the mean time, I'll post Jefferson's 1803 letter to the eminent scientist and, by his own words, "A Christian minister,"  Joseph Priestley.

Far from being the "godless atheist" that Barbara Ehrenreich and many contemporary atheists like to assert he was, Jefferson made a description of the intellectual ancestors of the kind of atheist who have grabbed the mic and made themselves so obnoxious and divisive.

His character & doctrines have received still greater injury from those who pretend to be his special disciples, and who have disfigured and sophisticated his actions & precepts, from views of personal interest, so as to induce the unthinking part of mankind to throw off the whole system in disgust, and to pass sentence as an impostor on the most innocent, the most benevolent, the most eloquent and sublime character that ever has been exhibited to man.

The "untinking part of mankind,"  who "throw off the whole system in disgust"  and who "pass sentence as an imposter on the most innocent, the most benevolent, the most eloquent and sublime character that ever has been exhibited to man."   I don't think contemporary atheists care for the idea that they are "the unthinking part of mankind," though it's undeniable that they "throw off the whole system in disgust" and "pass sentence as in imposter" on Jesus.  It's not a rare thing for atheists to heap up a whole catalogue of charges against Jesus, his words and acts.  It's as common as litter on an American sidewalk to have them deride Jesus as a fraud, when they're not denying he ever existed.  As can be seen in the passages from John Adams in which he rejected Charles Dupuis, those guys have been at it a long time.  The 19th and 20th centuries, with more organized efforts to debunk Christianity which "quote mined" people such as Jefferson, Madison and Adams even before anyone ever heard of Charles Darwin, suckered in large numbers of "the unthinking part of mankind," of the sort Jefferson noted.  And, in a rather extraordinary irony, that kind of "quote mining", distorting the actual record for ideological dishonesty, is regarded as erudition among them and among the equally unthinking in the more general audience.


Washington, Apr 9. 1803.

“Dear Sir,—While on a short visit lately to Monticello, I received from you a copy of your comparative view of Socrates & Jesus, and I avail myself of the first moment of leisure after my return to acknolege the pleasure I had in the perusal of it, and the desire it excited to see you take up the subject on a more extensive scale. In consequence of some conversation with Dr. Rush, in the year 1798–99, I had promised some day to write him a letter giving him my view of the Christian system. I have reflected often on it since, & even sketched the outlines in my own mind. I should first take a general view of the moral doctrines of the most remarkable of the antient philosophers, of whose ethics we have sufficient information to make an estimate, say of Pythagoras, Epicurus, Epictetus, Socrates, Cicero, Seneca, Antoninus. I should do justice to the branches of morality they have treated well; but point out the importance of those in which they are deficient. I should then take a view of the deism and ethics of the Jews, and show in what a degraded state they were, and the necessity they presented of a reformation. I should proceed to a view of the life, character, & doctrines of Jesus, who sensible of incorrectness of their ideas of the Deity, and of morality, endeavored to bring them to the principles of a pure deism, and juster notions of the attributes of God, to reform their moral doctrines to the standard of reason, justice & philanthropy, and to inculcate the belief of a future state. This view would purposely omit the question of his divinity, & even his inspiration. To do him justice, it would be necessary to remark the disadvantages his doctrines have to encounter, not having been committed to writing by himself, but by the most unlettered of men, by memory, long after they had heard them from him; when much was forgotten, much misunderstood, & presented in very paradoxical shapes. Yet such are the fragments remaining as to show a master workman, and that his system of morality was the most benevolent & sublime probably that has been ever taught, and consequently more perfect than those of any of the antient philosophers. His character & doctrines have received still greater injury from those who pretend to be his special disciples, and who have disfigured and sophisticated his actions & precepts, from views of personal interest, so as to induce the unthinking part of mankind to throw off the whole system in disgust, and to pass sentence as an impostor on the most innocent, the most benevolent, the most eloquent and sublime character that ever has been exhibited to man. This is the outline; but I have not the time, & still less the information which the subject needs. It will therefore rest with me in contemplation only. You are the person who of all others would do it best, and most promptly. You have all the materials at hand, and you put together with ease. I wish you could be induced to extend your late work to the whole subject. I have not heard particularly what is the state of your health; but as it has been equal to the journey to Philadelphia, perhaps it might encourage the curiosity you must feel to see for once this place, which nature has formed on a beautiful scale, and circumstances destine for a great one. As yet we are but a cluster of villages; we cannot offer you the learned society of Philadelphia; but you will have that of a few characters whom you esteem, & a bed & hearty welcome with one who will rejoice in every opportunity of testifying to you his high veneration & affectionate attachment.”

The website I link to above gives this passage from a draft note that indicates he sent his Syllabus mentioned yesterday to a number of people so they could review it and spread it.
An undated memorandum in the Jefferson MSS. is evidently the draft of a note with which Jefferson transmitted copies to his friends:

“A promise to a friend some time ago, executed but lately, has placed my religious creed on paper. I am desirous it should be perused by three or four particular friends, with whom tho’ I never desired to make a mystery of it, yet no occasion has happened to occur of explaining it to them. It is communicated for their personal satisfaction & to enable them to judge of the truth or falsehood of the libels published on that subject. When read, the return of the paper with this cover is asked.”

I wouldn't be surprised if the "falsehood of the libels" which Jefferson hoped to refute by his Syllabus were contemporary accusations of "goddless atheism" which were started even during his lifetime.   A number of those were accusations made against Jefferson.  Today they're obviously made in an attempt to claim Jefferson for a religious position he clearly rejected and objected to being associated with.   That's not done only by the unthinking but the uninformed, those too lazy to look at the record - yes, I mean journalists, bloggers and blog commentators, among others - but by professional distortionists published by Prometheus press and other outlets of modern atheist propaganda.