Things Lincoln never said

[Rob Wick]

Gene,

The problem with this quote is that while it's all around the Internet, there is no source listed for it. Fehrenbacher doesn't mention it (at least not in the quotes under the subject of "God" in the index). I went to the Collected Works and put in the words "atheist," atheism" and ath* which is a Boolean search term that would bring up all forms of the word and nothing appeared. Putting in the word "God" however, brought up (as one might expect) a number of references. This quote sounds to me like something a Kiwanis or Rotarian speaker said at a meeting once and it became sourced to Lincoln, like so many other quotes. I say no.

Best
Rob

I posted before I saw Roger's post on Gilbert J. Greene. That further makes it suspect to me.