"Jesus Without the Miracles"

[Cassandra]

It's the lead article in the December Harper's, talking about Jefferson's Bible and the Gospel of Thomas. If you get a chance, read it (it's not online yet and it may not be). Very interesting, even to a nice Jewish girl like me. ;-) It reinforces what I've been thinking lately; I don't have a lot of problems with Jesus' teachings, it's organized Christianity that aggravates me.

[ozone_man]

1. The Life And Morals of Jesus of Nazareth

The Jefferson Bible, or The Life And Morals of Jesus of Nazareth as it is formally titled, was an attempt by Thomas Jefferson to compile the teachings of Jesus from the Christian Gospels. Jefferson was a deist, and made this version of the Bible by removing sections of the traditional Bible that he felt were supernatural.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Bible


It used to be passed out to new members of congress in the early to mid 1900's. Some Jefferson quotes:

The Christian priesthood, finding the doctrines of Christ leveled to every understanding, and too plain to need explanation, saw, in the mysticism of Plato, materials with which they might build up an artificial system which might, from it’s indistinctness, admit everlasting controversy, give employment for their order, and introduce it to profit, power and pre-eminence.
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, July 5, 1814, Lester Cappon, ed., The Adams-Jefferson Letters (1959) p. 433

Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must approve the homage of reason rather than of blind-folded fear. Do not be frightened from this inquiry by any fear of its consequences.... If it end in a belief that there is no god, you will find incitements to virtue in the comfort and pleasantness you feel in its exercise and in the love of others it will procure for you.
-- Thomas Jefferson, to Peter Carr, 10 Aug. 1787. (original capitalization of the word god is retained per original)

Nothing but free argument, raillery and even ridicule will preserve the purity of religion.
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush. 21 April 1803, quoted from Roche, O.I.A., ed. The Jeffersonian Bible (1964) p. 348

http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/qframe.htm