yahwehyadayada

Does anyone know where I can find the text to the pamphlet Abraham Lincoln wrote against religion, but was advised not to print by his law partner?

cartman

I can't help you there, but I did find a document in which he denies that he is anti-religious. Unfortunately, I can't get the link to work!

Go <a href="http://www.alincolnassoc.com/" target="_blank">here</a> and click on "Search the Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln." Type "religion" in the simple search.

[ August 17, 2002: Message edited by: cartman ]</p>

Toto

That handbill shows that Lincoln ran away from charges of being anti-religious. He was, after all, a politician trying to unite the country. I suspect that his earlier anti-religious tract was burned.

cartman

Toto,

The fact that the denial exists is an indication that there was something. I'm not comfortable making a judgment as to its validity without more evidence--especially given Lincoln's vehement denial above.

Toto

I don't know that we disagree. It looks like Lincoln was basically a Deist, not a Christian but not an atheist, that he was careful not to insult religious people or their ideas, and that he had Christian friends and supporters.

Read more on this thread:
<a href="http://iidb.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=59&t=000617" target="_blank">Gettysburg Address: "Under God" = Urban Legend? </a>

GaryP

From 2000 Years of Disbeliefby James A. Haught;

"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." 1862-- letter to Judge J S Wakefield, after the death of Willie

Supreme Court Justice David Davis, administrator of Lincoln's estate, "He was an avowed and open infidel, in the Christain sense of the term... had faith in laws, principles, causes and effects."

Mary Todd Lincoln, "Mr. Lincoln had no faith and no hope in the usual acceptation of those words. He never joined a church, but still as I believe, he was a religious man by nature. He first seemed to think of the subject when our boy, Willie died, and then more than ever about the time he went to Gettysburg; But it was a kind of poetry in his nature, and he was never a technical Christian."

lobstertrap

Oh, so if someone denies a claims that he or she is gay, he or she must have been gay, right?

[ August 17, 2002: Message edited by: lobstertrap ]

[ August 17, 2002: Message edited by: lobstertrap ]</p>

Vorkosigan

According to what I remember from Gore Vidal's essays, who wrote a bio of Lincoln and did much research, Lincoln's anti-Christian writings were burned by his friends who feared they would affect his political career.

GaryP

I think he may have gotten that from James Herndon's biography.

cartman

No, that's not what I meant. I'll try to clarify.

The fact that Lincoln wrote a denial indicates that there was --at the very least-- a question of his stance regarding religion. (Similarly, in your analogy a denial would indicate that someone's sexual orientation had been questioned.) Whether there was a basis for the question cannot be determined from the handbill alone; We simply know that Lincoln denied being opposed to religion.

Judging from some of the quotes that have been posted, he may have had anti-religious views despite his denial. But, as I stated in my previous post, I would need to study the evidence before making such a judgment.