Regular readers know I have an occasional penchant for verifying the accuracy and sources of popular quotes attributed to famous and respected people.

There is a widely circulated quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln that I just haven't been able to verify:

The Bible is not my Book and Christianity is not my religion. I could never give assent to the long complicated statements of Christian dogma.

The only one I could find that is readily quoted was a book titled Salvation for Sale (a biased-sounding title, although that does not mean the scholarship of the author is unsound). The quote has been thrown like a dagger at bloggers who claim the country was founded on the Christian religion, but I have not seen it refuted anywhere.

Of course, how do you refute a quote? The duty, it would seem, would be for whoever offers the quote to provide a linked source proving it.

Which comes down to Salvation for Sale, the full title of which is Salvation for Sale: An Insider's View of Pat Robertson by Gerard Thomas Straub (described as "a former producer of the 700 Club"). What his bias might be, I do not know. He has written other books (which have won awards) and he is a religious man, but I'd like to have a close look at the Lincoln quote to see what if any source he provides.

Except this is the Christmas season and I just plain don't have time. I cannot check out every last damned quote that I see thrown around on the Internet. There is simply too much. True, I might have been able to do it for Isaac Asimov, but this is Abraham Lincoln. Priorities, you know....

Perhaps one of our readers who are concerned more deeply than I am can step up to the plate. As someone who believes in building coalitions, I like to think that I have readers on both, um "sides" of this issue. (Meaning that some readers would like the quote to be true, while others would like it to be false.)

Please feel free to dig in, and dig!

As to my own bias, I really don't have much of an emotional stake in Lincoln's views of the unknown. They are of interest to me, but I don't look up to the man as an ultimate authority figure whose views are binding on me.

Besides, I worry that debating views of the unknown is ultimately a purposeless activity. Yet its purposelessness does not prevent its politicization, which sets up a festering contradiction.

Should we politicize purposeless debates over the unknown?

Don't ask me. I'm too busy with Xmas.