Thomas Paine "The Age of Reason"

Thomas Paine experienced his fall from grade for writing The Age of Reason. This text questions organized religion because of its reliance on hearsay and supernatural events. Paine does not understand how people can believe accounts of events that they themselves have not seen; he needs to see to believe. I think that’s ridiculous. I did not witness slavery or World War II but I do not question whether or not they happened. Does he expect there to never be a history? That’s absurd. I do however, understand Paine’s questioning of supernatural events. Maybe when I was a youngster I could be convinced that Virgin Mary could conceive baby Jesus without have a man’s help, but this idea is definitely questionable. The lists of Paine’s problems with organizes religion goes on much farther that this. He can’t fathom how Satan is given so much power, such as indirectly damning the rest of mankind in Genesis. If God created all man as kind creatures, then how is there such an evil Satan that we cannot overcome? When you compare the Old Testament and the New Testament, two very different Gods are described – which one are we supposed to believe in?

Paine is not an unreligious man; he does believe that there is a God and that we are living in a world that God created. He does not care for language, especially dead ones, for example Latin used in Christian churches. He believes we should all use the universal language of science and math – in fact, he pays special attention to the use of triangles and other geometries. It is important for us to realize that Paine is most critical to Christianity, despite what he may say in his opening. He seems to have a bone to pick with all organized religion, but then quickly zeroes in on Christianity. This is most likely because he has the most knowledge about Christianity – he would look ignorant trying to judge something he doesn’t totally understand. Overall, it is clear that Paine is much more anti-Catholic than he is anti-Protestant.

Thomas Paine preached the ideas of equality of man and freedom of religion. We could reach this equality with universal suffrage and kindness between all humans. He believed you should trust in yourself and choose whatever religion you can most connect with. It is interesting to note that Thomas Jefferson shared many of the same ideas, expressed in the largely unknown Jefferson Bible, as well as a letter her wrote to his nephew, Peter Carr. In The Jefferson Bible, he takes stories from the bible which he find to be true and translates them, but leaves all supernatural events that cannot be explains by science. However, he was not hated by most of America for that reason. He probably has something to do with the fact that Paine published a book on all of what he saw as religious issues and Jefferson, for the most part, kept this idea to himself. That is why today, Thomas Jefferson is a founding father, and Thomas Paine is not.