Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823

"One day the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in the United States will tear down the artificial scaffolding of Christianity. And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as His father, in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter."

Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823

Scanned letter at The Library of Congress
Transcript at The Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library