Paine's criticisms of the church, the monarchy, and the aristocracy appear most clearly in Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889). [101] Its message still resonates, evidenced by Christopher Hitchens, who stated that "if the rights of man are to be upheld in a dark time, we shall require an age of reason". (Eaton was later forced to flee to America after being convicted of seditious libel for publishing other radical works. But Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are not called prophets; it does not appear from any accounts we have that they could either sing, play music, or make poetry. Welcome back. Sad how he could not understand a 5th grade written book that proves itself as completely infallible. "[53], Paine's style is not only "vulgar" but also irreverent. Such a breath of fresh air! It is a history of wickedness, that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and, for my own part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel.". "[58] His description of the story of the virgin birth of Jesus demystifies biblical language and is "an account of a young woman engaged to be married, and while under this engagement she is, to speak plain language, debauched by a ghost. Without a concept of natural law, the deists argued, explanations of the workings of nature would descend into irrationality. [100], Paine's text is still published today, one of the few 18th-century religious texts to be widely available. Even the liberal Analytical Review was skeptical of Paine's claims and distanced itself from the book. "[74] Carlile was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to one year in prison but spent six years instead because he refused any "legal conditions" on his release. Smylie, 207–09; Claeys, 181–82; Davidson and Scheick, 70–71. Written at the time of the Enlightenment, Thomas Paine virtually instigated the American Revolution and the break from, Now this was a very interesting read. After establishing that he would refrain from using extra-Biblical sources to inform his criticism, but would instead apply the Bible's own words against itself, Paine questions the sacredness of the Bible and analyzes it as one would any other book. Originally distributed as unbound pamphlets, the book was also cheap, putting it within the reach of a large number of buyers. Thomas Paine had earn. He escaped the guillotine only by accident: the sign marking him out for execution was improperly placed on his cell door. Protesting injustice, sassing their elders, and sometimes saving the world. So...pretty much like kids during any other... To see what your friends thought of this book, Paine is not an atheist, far from it. How happened it that he did not discover America, or is it only with kingdoms that his sooty highness has any interest? It is altogether unnecessary, after this, to offer any observations upon what those men, styled prophets, have written. In Part II of The Age of Reason, he does just that by pointing out numerous contradictions in the Bible. The first and last of these men were founders of different systems of religion; but Jesus Christ founded no new system. Instead, they advocated a literal reading of the Bible, citing the Bible's long history as evidence of its authority. Best Banned, Censored, and Challenged Books, Time Travel with These 15 YA Historical Fiction Novels. Just finished my first read of Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason today. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Despite being written in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries, it is still very readable and oddly very relevant. Smylie, 210; see also Davidson and Scheick, 70. Ethan Allen published the first American defense of deism, Reason, The Only Oracle of Man (1784), but deism remained primarily a philosophy of the educated elite. Their fear helped to drive the backlash which soon followed. Did the book called the Bible excel in purity of ideas and expression all the books that are now extant in the world, I would not take it for my rule of faith, as being the word of God, because the possibility would nevertheless exist of my being imposed upon. Easy to read and well thought out, I learned to respect Mr. Paine even more after reading about the reaction to these tracts. One of the most influential thinkers/writers/pamphleteers of the American AND French revolutions.