--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: The hocus-pocus phantasm of a God like…" description: "\"“The hocus-pocus phantasm of a God like another Cerberus, with one body and three heads, had its birth and growth in the blood of thousands and thousan..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/656/thomas-jefferson-43_absurdities_the-hocus-pocus-phantasm-of-a-god-like-a_2192196.jpg" --- # The hocus-pocus phantasm of a God like another Cerberus… ![“The hocus-pocus phantasm of a God like another Cerberus, with one body and three heads, had its birth and growth in the blood of thousands and thousands of martyrs... In fact, the Athanasian paradox that one is three, and three but one, is so incomprehensible to the human mind, that no candid man…” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/656/thomas-jefferson-43_absurdities_the-hocus-pocus-phantasm-of-a-god-like-a_2192196.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/656/thomas-jefferson-43_absurdities_the-hocus-pocus-phantasm-of-a-god-like-a_2192196.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/656/thomas-jefferson-43_absurdities_the-hocus-pocus-phantasm-of-a-god-like-a_2192196.jpg) > ““The hocus-pocus phantasm of a God like another Cerberus, with one body and three heads, had its birth and growth in the blood of thousands and thousands of martyrs... In fact, the Athanasian paradox that one is three, and three but one, is so incomprehensible to the human mind, that no candid man can say he has any idea of it, and how can he believe what presents no idea? He who thinks he does, only deceives himself. He proves, also, that man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without a rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullibility which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason, and the mind becomes a wreck . \[ Letter to James Smith discussing Jefferson's hate of the doctrine of the Christian trinity, December 8 1822 \]”” [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The quote argues that the concept of the Trinity is irrational and leads to blind faith, undermining reason and making humanity vulnerable to absurdities. **In simple terms:** Trinity seen as irrational, making faith blind. Key Takeaway Questionreason over faith. Themes religion philosophy reasoning Mood skeptical critical inquisitive Type philosophical theological critical When to use this quote - theological debate - personal belief - critical thinking - skepticism - education Key Concepts Trinity faith irrationality Questions to Reflect On - How does faith replace reason? - Can irrational beliefs be reconciled with logic? A Different Perspective Reason alone cannot fully grasp divine mysteries. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Absurdities](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/absurdities/) [Existentialism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/existentialism/) [Faith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/faith/) [Gullibility](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/gullibility/) [Human mind](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/human-mind/) [Martyrs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/martyrs/) [Reason](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/reason/) [Trinitarian](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/trinitarian/) [Trinity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/trinity/) ## Related quotes > [The hocus-pocus phantasm of a God, like another Cerberus, with one body and three heads, had its birth and growth in the blood of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/the-hocus-pocus-phantasm-of-a-god-like-another-cerberus-with-one-body/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [Man once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/man-once-surrendering-his-reason-has-no-remaining-guard-against/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [ “Even a child could see the division between what the Galileans \[i.e., Christians\] say they believe and what, in fact, they do believe, as… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gore-vidal/even-a-child-could-see-the-division-between-what-the-galileans-i-e/) [Gore Vidal](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gore-vidal/) > [In its more authoritarian forms, religion punishes questioning and rewards gullibility. Faith is not a function of stupidity, but a frequent cause of it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wendy-kaminer/in-its-more-authoritarian-forms-religion-punishes-questioning-and/) [Wendy Kaminer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wendy-kaminer/) > [Religions, of course, have their own demanding intellectual traditions, as Jesuits and Talmudic scholars might attest… But, in its less rigorous, popular forms, religion…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wendy-kaminer/religions-of-course-have-their-own-demanding-intellectual-traditions/) [Wendy Kaminer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wendy-kaminer/) ## More by Thomas Jefferson > [A man has a right to use a saw, an axe, a plane, separately; may he not combine their uses on the same piece…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/a-man-has-a-right-to-use-a-saw-an-axe-a-plane-separately-may-he-not/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/believing-with-you-that-religion-is-a-matter-which-lies-solely/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [ \[States and the Federal government are\] coordinate departments of one simple and integral whole... The one is the domestic, the other the foreign branch… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/states-and-the-federal-government-are-coordinate-departments-of-one/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [I am for freedom of religion, and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendency of one sect over another.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/i-am-for-freedom-of-religion-and-against-all-maneuvers-to-bring-about/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/single-acts-of-tyranny-may-be-ascribed-to-the-accidental-opinion-of-a/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [“Perceiving the order of nature to be that individual happiness shall be inseparable from the practice of virtue, I am willing to hope it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/perceiving-the-order-of-nature-to-be-that-individual-happiness-shall/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy, and not confidence, which prescribes limited constitutions, to bind down those…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/free-government-is-founded-in-jealousy-and-not-in-confidence-it-is/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [Though you cannot see, when you take one step, what will be the next, yet follow truth, justice, and plain dealing, and never fear…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/though-you-cannot-see-when-you-take-one-step-what-will-be-the-next/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [A well informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/a-well-informed-citizenry-is-the-best-defense-against-tyranny/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [The two principles on which our conduct towards the Indians should be founded are justice and fear. 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The artificial aristocracy is a mischievous ingredient in government,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/there-is-an-artificial-aristocracy-founded-on-wealth-and-birth/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [Nothing but free argument, raillery and even ridicule will preserve the purity of religion.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/nothing-but-free-argument-raillery-and-even-ridicule-will-preserve/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [When the people are afraid of the government, that's tyranny. But when the government is afraid of the people, that's liberty.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/when-the-people-are-afraid-of-the-government-that-s-tyranny-but-when/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) > [“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-jefferson/we-hold-these-truths-to-be-self-evident-that-all-men-are-created/) [Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) [Explore all 2,098 Thomas Jefferson quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-jefferson/) ## More Absurdities quotes > [Thought of the incomprehensible sequence of changes and chances that make up a life, all the beauties and horrors and absurdities whose conjunctions create…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aldous-huxley/thought-of-the-incomprehensible-sequence-of-changes-and-chances-that/) [Aldous Huxley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aldous-huxley/) > [My work is not so much a direct commentary as it is an open-ended observation of the absurdities around us.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ori-gersht/my-work-is-not-so-much-a-direct-commentary-as-it-is-an-open-ended/) [Ori Gersht](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ori-gersht/) > [What monstrous absurdities and paradoxes have resisted whole batteries of serious arguments, and then crumbled swiftly into dust before the ringing death-knell of a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/agnes-repplier/what-monstrous-absurdities-and-paradoxes-have-resisted-whole/) [Agnes Repplier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/agnes-repplier/) > [“It is with philosophy as with religion : men marvel at the absurdity of other people's tenets, while exactly parallel absurdities remain in their own.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-stuart-mill/it-is-with-philosophy-as-with-religion-men-marvel-at-the-absurdity-of/) [John Stuart Mill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-stuart-mill/) > [But whatever you do, take neither yourselves nor your fellow-creatures too seriously. 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My own childishness sometimes amused me. Would it amuse others? Were others like myself, hopelessly childish?”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sherwood-anderson/more-absurdity-in-myself-endless-absurdities-my-own-childishness/) [Sherwood Anderson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sherwood-anderson/) > [The idea that each corporation can be a feudal monarchy and yet behave in its corporate action like a democratic citizen concerned for the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/the-idea-that-each-corporation-can-be-a-feudal-monarchy-and-yet/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Poor human reason, when it trusts in itself, substitutes the strangest absurdities for the highest divine concepts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/poor-human-reason-when-it-trusts-in-itself-substitutes-the-strangest/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [The most pernicious of absurdities is that weak, blind, stupid faith is better than the constant practice of every human virtue.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-savage-landor/the-most-pernicious-of-absurdities-is-that-weak-blind-stupid-faith-is/) [Walter Savage Landor](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-savage-landor/) [Browse all 78 Absurdities quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/absurdities/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“The hocus-pocus phantasm of a God like another Cerberus, with one body and three heads, had its birth and growth in the blood of thousands and thousands of martyrs... In fact, the Athanasian paradox that one is three, and three but one, is so incomprehensible to the human mind, that no candid man can say he has any idea of it, and how can he believe what presents no idea? He who thinks he does, only deceives himself. He proves, also, that man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without a rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullibility which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason, and the mind becomes a wreck . 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