It's a bit long and dry as I was outlining the key points in Part I of The Age of Reason, so I apologize if I bore you to death with this. I still maintain many of the points put forth by Paine, though many have changed. My initial reading of this book was in 1985 whilst I was still in college, right about the time I was beginning to question my beliefs and my faith. The tenets of Deism allowed me to "hold on" a few more years before everything collapsed.
Original page notation is included although I no longer have that copy.
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Recently I have been re-reading "The Age of Reason" by Thomas Paine. I have found, that the major themes presented by Paine, throughout his entire work, fit my belief system better than any other belief system whether faith based or secular.
Paine is known as a radical free-thinker, an enemy of organized or institutional religion, but is no atheist. His simple style resonates with rhetorical questions and seasoned arguments that are both sensible and detailed.
In his book Paine criticizes institutional religion, in particular Christian dogma; challenges the legitimacy of the Bible; and presents his major themes--a firm belief in a creator-God, skepticism of supernatural claims, virtue derived from consideration of others, and an individual's right of conscience.
Simply put, Paine's entire religious creed can be summed up by the following statement: "By unaided reason man can know there is a God, that he has duties toward Him and his fellow man, and performance of these duties make for his welfare now and in the future."
Throughout the course of his treatise Paine exposes the stories of creation, the garden of Eden, the Resurrection, Mysteries and Miracles , prophesies and Prophets, and everything else through to Revelation, basing his arguments on science and reason.
In his opening paragraph Paine writes, first and foremost, every person has the right to their own opinions:
,,,I have always strenuously supported the right of every man to his own opinion however different that opinion might be to mine. He who denies to another this right, makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it. (49)He then goes on to state that reason must be used to combat errors of thought. Stated quite succinctly, Paine writes, "The most formidable weapon against error of every kind is reason. I have never used any other, and I trust I never will." (49) It is through reason that God can be known; by rational study of His creation can God be apprehended. [Obviously I no longer believe that God can be found by rational study of creation since I do not believe that God exists or that he is responsible for the natural world. But I do still believe that reason is a formidable weapon.]
Early in his writing, Paine begins by laying out his ”,,,opinion upon religion,” his profession of faith: Belief in one God, happiness in the afterlife. Very simply he writes, "I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life." (50)
In his summary to Part 1 Paine also states, “I trouble not myself about the manner of future existence, I content myself with believing,,,that the Power that gave me existence is able to continue it, in any form and manner He pleases,,,” (98)
Equality of man, virtue derived from consideration of others. "I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow creatures happy." (50)
My mind, my church, or as Paine states, "My own mind is my own church". His disbelief in the professed creeds of organized churches. (50)
Against the enslavement of man to the church, “,,,all national institutions of churches,,,appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.” (50)
Happiness = being faithful to self. ",,,it is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe." (50) [I have always found this statement profound in its simplicity. Faith in one's self important, if you don't believe in yourself, have faith, then no one else will either.]
Denial of the priesthood, it's between me and God. "When a man has so far corrupted his professional belief to things he does not believe he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime." (50-51)
“He takes up the trade of a priest for the sake of gain, and in order to qualify himself for the trade he begins with a perjury. Can we conceive any thing more destructive to morality than this?” (51)
On the Separation of Church and State Paine writes:
Soon after I had published the pamphlet "Common Sense," in America, I saw the exceeding probability that a revolution in the system of government would be followed by a revolution in the system of religion. The adulterous connection of church and state,,,has so effectually prohibited,,,every discussion upon established creeds, and upon first principles of religion, that until the system of government should be changed, those subjects could not be brought fairly and openly before the world; but that whenever this should be done, a revolution in the system of religion would follow. Human inventions and priest craft would be detected; and man would return to the pure, unmixed and unadulterated belief of one God, and no more. (51)Paine believed that a revolution in religion was the prerequisite of a successful political revolution. An age of intellectual freedom, where reason would triumph over superstition.
Disbelief in the biblical texts being revelation from God. “Every national church or religion has established itself by pretending some special mission from God, communicated to certain individuals,,,as if the way to God was not open to every man alike.” (51) In short order Paine attacks the one claim that is the anchor of every church's dogma: that the church does the work of a Deity as revealed by the Deity
One has to take into consideration Paine's use of the term revelation, "Revelation is a communication of something which the person to whom that thing is revealed did not know before." (59) In other words, "Revelation when applied to religion, means something communicated immediately from God to man." (51) "It is revelation to the first person only, and hearsay to every other, and consequently they are not obliged to believe it." (52)
Paine expands on this point, but fundamentally the only proof that a particular scripture is divine revelations is because we are told that it is. Being that all the reporters are human and capable of being deceived, and of deceiving, one has no reason to treat scripture any differently than other pieces of literature.
"The Christian theory is little else than the idolatry of the ancient Mythologists, accommodated to the purposes of power and revenue; and it yet remains to reason and philosophy to abolish the amphibious fraud." (53) Paine criticizes the tyrannical actions of the Church as he had those of governments in the Rights of Man and Common Sense. He argues that the Church and the State are a single corrupt institution which does not act in the best interests of the people—both must be radically altered. (See On the Separation of Church and State.)
Paine states ”Nothing that is here said can apply, even with the most distant disrespect, to the real character of Jesus Christ. He was a virtuous and amiable man. The morality that he preached and practiced was of the most benevolent kind,,,.” (53) Yet he still has concerns in regards to the claims of deity (by others), and the Resurrection.
"Jesus Christ wrote no account of himself, of his birth, parentage, or anything else; not a line of what is called the New Testament is of his own writing. The history of him is altogether the work of other people; and as th the account given of his resurrection and ascension, it was a necessary counterpart to the story of his birth. His historians, having brought him into the world in a supernatural manner, were obliged to take him out again in the same manner, or the first part of the story must have fallen to the ground." (54)
Using internal evidence concerning the resurrection, “A thing which everybody is required to believe requires that the proof and evidence of it should be equal to all, and universal,,,Thomas did not believe the resurrection and,,,would not believe without having ocular and manual demonstration himself. So neither will I, and the reason is equally as good for me, and for every other person, as for Thomas.” (54)
Bear in mind that Paine is not denying the existence of Christ as a person or the manner of his death. His ire is at the absurdity of the story from his birth through the resurrection. “That such a man as Jesus Christ existed, and that he was crucified,,,are historical relations strictly within the limits of probability. He preached most excellent morality and the equality of man; but he preached also against the corruption and avarice of the Jewish priests, and this brought upon him the hatred and vengeance of the whole order of priesthood.” (55)
Paine continues by discussing the absurdity of the fable concerning the Garden of Eden and the deification of Satan. “The more unnatural anything is, the more it is capable of becoming the object of dismal admiration.” (57)
In his study of the origins of the canonical texts (OT) Paine again uses the definition of revelation and available internal evidence. Remembering that, “Revelation,,,cannot be applied to anything done upon earth, of which man is the actor or the witness; and consequently all the historical and anecdotal parts of the Bible,,,is not within the meaning and compass of the word revelation, and therefore, is not the Word of God.” (59)
In his discussion of the OT Paine examines the traditional Creation Story questioning why it bears the title “the Mosaic account” of Creation and drifting into a discussion of the Prophets and prophecies.
In regards to the Mosaic accounts , “Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon than the Word of God.” (60) To Paine the Bible is "a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind." (60)
As for the miscellaneous parts of the Bible, Paine has nothing but abhorrence and contempt: “,,,we find a great deal of elevated sentiment reverentially expressed,,,but they stand on no higher rank than many other composition on similar subjects, as well before that time as since.” (60)
The remaining parts of the Bible, the Prophets, in Paine's opinion are the works of itinerant preachers and poets “who mixed poetry, anecdote, and devotion together.” (61)
“There is not,,,any word that describes to us what we call a poet, nor any word which describes what we call poetry. The case is that the word prophet,,,was the Bible word for poet, and the word prophesying meant the art of making poetry. It also meant the art of playing poetry to a tune upon any instrument of music.” (61)
In concluding his thoughts on the OT Paine argues that "the Word of God cannot exist in any written human language.” The changeability of words , the lack of a universal language, translation errors, mistakes, and willful alteration make it impossible. It is evident to Paine that human language “cannot be the vehicle of the Word of God. The Word of God exists in something else." (63)
As for the New Testament, "[T]he Church has setup a system of religion very contradictory to the character of the person whose name ot bears. It has set up a religion of pomp and of revenue, in pretended imitation of a person whose life was humility and poverty." (66) Specifically he attacks the doctrine of redemption as being “originally fabricated on purpose to bring forward and build all those secondary and pecuniary redemptions upon and that the passages in the books upon which the idea or theory of redemption is built have been manufactured and fabricated for that purpose.” (67)
Paine feels that by living in a manner that follows the teachings of the church, man is choosing to distance himself from God, thereby creating a need to use intermediates. Man is denying “the choicest gift of God to man, the GIFT OF REASON; and having endeavored to force upon himself the belief of a system against which reason revolts, he ungratefully calls it human reason, as if man could give reason to himself.” (68)
If no prophet or scripture is to be trusted what is left? What is the Word of God, the true theology, according to Paine what is the "something else," where does the Word of God exist? In other words, what is deism?
After his discussion about the doctrine of redemption he continues by defining the true revelation, “THE WORD OF GOD IS THE CREATION WE BEHOLD and it is on this word,which no human invention can counterfeit or alter, that God speaketh universally to man.” (68)
The only reliable unchanging and universal evidence of God's existence is the natural world--creation. “Human language is local and changeable, and is therefore incapable of being used as the means of unchangeable and universal information.” (68)
“,,,[A]nd as to translations, every man who knows anything of languages knows that it is impossible to translate from one language into another, not only without losing a great part of the original, but frequently mistaking the tense,,,” (69)
If we want to know God or what God is we are to search the whole of creation. The means have to equal the ends. “it is in this that the difference between finite and infinite power and wisdom discovers itself. (69)
“The Creation speaks a universal language, independently of human speech or human language...It is an ever-existing original, which every man can read. It cannot be forged; it cannot be counterfeited; it cannot be lost; it cannot be altered; it cannot be suppressed....
“In fine, do we want to know what God is? Search not the book called the Scripture, which any human hand might make, but the Scripture called the Creation.” (70)
This is the key tenet of Deism, and a point that Paine most wanted to convey.
At this point, Paine articulates his version of the First Cause and arguments based on design for God's existence; he uses them as a springboard to advocate reason as the tool for religious understanding.
“The only idea man can affix to the name of God is that of a first cause, the cause of all things.” (70) By searching the whole of creation, we see that “everything we behold carries in itself the internal evidence that it did not make itself. Every man is evidence to himself that he did not make himself,,,neither could any tree, plant or animal make itself; and it is by conviction arising from this evidence that carries us on,,,by necessity to the belief of a first cause eternally existing, of a nature totally different to any material existence we know of, and by the power of which all things exist; and the first cause man calls God.” (70)
“It is only by exercising reason that man can discover God. Take away that reason, and he would be incapable of understanding anything.”(70)
“As to the Christian system of faith, it appears to me a species of Atheism--a sort of religious denial of God. It professes to believe in a man rather than in God. It is a compound made up chiefly of Manism with but little Deism, and is as near to Atheism as twilight is to darkness.” (73)
Theology, according to Paine, should be a natural philosophy “embracing the whole circle of science,,,the study of the works of God, and of the power and wisdom of God in His works, and is the true theology;” (73) not human opinions concerning God. “It is not the study of God Himself in the works that He has made, but in the worls or writings that man has made.” (73)
Paine continues, “[i]t is fraud of the Christian system to call the sciences human inventions; it is only application of them that is human. Every science has for its basis a system of principles as fixed and unalterable as those by which the universe is regulated and governed. Man cannot make principles, he can only discover them.” (74)
In a lengthy argument, Paine demonstrates the practical application of scientific principles. ”Man cannot invent anything that is eternal and immutable,,,” (74)
“Since, then, man cannot make principles, from where did he gain a knowledge of them, so as to be able to apply them,,,From whence, I ask, could he gain that knowledge, but from the study of the true theology?” (75)
“It is the structure of the universe that has taught this knowledge to man. That structure is an ever-existing exhibition of every principle upon which every part of mathematical science is founded.”(75) is derived, and it is from that knowledge that all the arts have originated.” (76)
In concluding his thoughts about true theology, Paine states, “Nothing was made in vain; for vain would be this power of vision if it taught man nothing.”
“As the Christian system of faith has made a revolution in theology, so also has it made a revolution in the state of learning.” (77) So begins Paine 's discussion and analysis of the state of learning in his time.
“The schools of the Greeks were schools of science and philosophy, and not of languages; and it is in the knowledge of things that science and philosophy teach, that learning consists.” (77)
Over the course of five pages Paine details how the Christian theology has all but eliminated the study of science from learning. “As the Christian system of faith has made a revolution in theology, so also has it made a revolution in the state of learning, That which is now called learning was not learning originally.” (77)
“The schools of the Greeks were schools of science and philosophy, and not of languages; and it is in the knowledge of things that science and philosophy teach, that learning consists. Almost all the scientific learning that now exists came to us from the Greeks.” (77)
In Paine's opinion the Greeks emphasized science and philosophy, not languages. Although necessary for some to learn languages to translate, there is nothing new to learn from what he calls the dead languages. It is time wasted in teaching and learning them, “it is only in the living languages that new knowledge is to be found.” (78)
According to Paine, “It would therefore be advantageous to the state of learning to abolish the study of dead languages and to make learning consist, as it originally did, in scientific knowledge.” (78)
Using Galileo as an example, Paine continues by showing how the Christian theology is used as a weapon against the knowledge man has gained by the aid of science . “,,,it has become necessary to their purpose to cut learning down to a size less dangerous to their project, and this the effected by restricting the idea of learning to the dead study of dead languages. They not only rejected the study of science out of the Christian schools, but the persecuted it,,,” (79)
He then continues to the moral duty of man “,,,to obtain every possible evidence that the structure of the heavens or any other part of creation affords, with respect to systems of religion.” (80) This information needs to be used to combat a system of religion made to grow out of a supposed system of creation that is not true.
In his concluding remarks concerning education, Paine strongly states , “,,,the age of ignorance commenced with the Christian system.”(80)
In the remaining sections of Part I Paine discusses the structure of the universe as compared to the Christian system of religion, belief in the plurality of worlds, and the multiplicity of religions brought forth by means of mystery, myth, and prophecy.
Early on in life Paine had doubts as to truth of the Christian system of beliefs; specifically the redemption story heard as a child. “,,,I either doubted the truth of the Christian system or thought it to be a strange affair,,,and I moreover believe that any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child cannot be a true system.” (83)
“How different is this to the pure and simple profession of Deism! The true Deist has but one Deity, and his religion consists in contemplating the power, wisdom,, and benignity of the Deity in His works, and in endeavoring to imitate Him in everything moral, scientifical and mechanical.” (84)
Contemplation on the infinity of space brought Paine to “,,,compare, or as I have before said, to confront the eternal evidence.” (84) To believe that God only created one habitable world in the universe seems ridiculous and the belief cannot be “,,,held together in the same mind, and he who thinks that he believes both has thought little of either.” (85) In other words, one cannot believe in the plurality of worlds and the biblical creation story.
Paine continues by posing a simple question: “Since,,,no part of our earth is left unoccupied, why is it to be supposed that the immensity of space is a naked void, lying in eternal waste? The true reason, Paine answers, “,,,the Creator made nothing in vain,,,,He organized the structure of the universe in the most advantageous manner for the benefit of man,,,we can discover at least one reason why a plurality of worlds has been made, and that reason calls forth the devotional gratitude of man as well as his admiration.” (89)
Paine concludes by questioning how the Christian system of faith forms itself on the belief of one world only. To him the idea of a single world seems absurd. Paine finds it difficult to believe that God “should quit the care of all the rest, and come to die in our world, because, they say, one man and one women had eaten an apple.” (90) Or does every world in the boundless creation have a Eve, an apple , serpent and a redeemer?
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