[.ca] The Age of Reason (ISBN 1596051604)

Still worth reading today:
This is a book which was written in 1795 but surprisingly enough is as clear and easy to read as books written today. The book consists of two parts, the fist is a discussion of deism as a rational religious belief and he second part consists of a textual analysis of the bible. The second half is probably the more interesting part to read today. Payne goes through and compares the internal logic of the text of both the old and New Testament and Old Testament. The four gospels vary significantly in their account of a range of issues which Payne suggests proves that they were written in isolation from each other and suggests that their origin is hearsay. One example he raises is the account that suggests that when Jesus died the tombs of saints opened and they were returned to life. This rather significant event is not mentioned in the other gospels and that suggests that it was not true. He uses a similar approach to other gospels. In regard to the Old Testament he suggests convincingly that the suggestion that Moses wrote the first give books of the bible cannot be true. The key to understanding this is a close examination of the text. These books not only describe Moses life but also his death. The writing is inconsistent with personal authorship in other ways. (The text for instance suggesting that Moses was modest. If one was to make such an assertion about oneself it would not be consistent with the nature of the assertion) The book is very short and apart from the discussion of the bible it is an interesting work in the context of history. It was written after the revolution but before Napoleon proclaimed himself emperor. Payne had little idea of what was to come and how quickly Catholicism would be re-introduced in France. An interesting book and the critique of the Bible is one of the foundations of modern scholarship in the area.

Important Book:
One of the best books I have ever read. I have a new respect for Thomas Paine. Paine spent his life defending the cause of freedom. In this book, Paine tries to break the chains of religious superstition. The thoughts expressed in this book might help to reduce the problem of religious extremism we are facing today. We should spend more time learning about the thoughts and ideas of our founding fathers. It is amazing how brilliant these men were.

Great Book:
This is a wonderful book. I wish I would have read it earlier in my life. In the Age of Reason Paine is trying to free human thought from the bondage of Organized religion's scare tactics and superstition. Think what the world would be like today if we were Deist and quit arguing and killing over religous text. Paine's arguments are well organized and easy to read. I also believe this book should be taught in schools. I strongly recommend this book.

As a Deist...:
As a Deist myself, I would recomend this book to anyone who is interested in Deism. Paine uses this book to point out the problems with not only the Christian religion, but also Judaism and Islam. He uses simply reason, which he calls, "The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind," to point our problems and direct contradictions within these religions. This book is clear and concise. It is one of the most eye opening books I have ever read.

A defense of deism and a polemic against theism:
Thomas Paine, like others among our nation's founders (Ethan Allen, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Joel Barlow), considered himself a deist, a term that encompasses a wide range of beliefs but is principally based on "religious rationalism": that, initially created by a benevolent God, the universe operates on rational rather than supernatural principles. Paine (and Allen), however, departed from the cautiously nuanced approach to religious issues adopted by his peers and vociferously rejected Judeo-Christian tenets and scriptures. In "The Age of Reason," Paine outlines his objections to theism and his belief in deism, and he dissects the inconsistencies in both the Old and New Testaments. Paine published the book in two parts: the first he hurriedly finished in January 1794 when he realized he would be arrested during the French Revolution (passages were in fact written from the Luxembourg Palace in Paris, where he was imprisoned). The second part was written the following year, and he responds to the critics of the first part with a no-holds-barred attack on the veracity of the Bible. Paine presents his basic belief that "it is only in the creation that all our ideas and conceptions of a word of God can unite," and later in the book he says that "the creation is the bible of the deist." To Paine, the Bible is the word of man, not the Word of God, and he confronts many of the literalist beliefs proffered by the clergy and worshippers in his day. Many of his arguments, once shocking and blasphemous, are now taken for granted. For instance, he analyzes internal evidence in the books allegedly written by Moses, Joshua, and Samuel to show that it's impossible for Moses, Joshua, and Samuel to have written them--a view that most Christians and nearly all biblical scholars acknowledge today. In other ways, he is way ahead of his time, pondering the minuteness of our world in the immensity of the universe, speculating that other planets around other stars may well hold other intelligent species, and mocking the resulting conclusion that "the Son of God . . . would have nothing else to do than to travel from world to world, in an endless succession of death." Paine believes that God made a complex multi-world universe (rather than a single world) so that it would serve as a textbook for humankind: "As therefore the Creator made nothing in vain, so also must it be believed that he organized the structure of the universe in the most advantageous manner for the benefit of man." It is through this "revelation" of nature that believers can know God: "The principles of science lead to this knowledge; for the creator of man is the creator of science, and it is through that medium that man can see God, as it were, face to face." Even if one disagrees with Paine (and many obviously do),"The Age of Reason" is an essential book both historically and philosophically. It should be read whether you hope to provide support for your own beliefs or to discover what non-Christians thought two centuries ago. It's inevitable that every reader will approach this book with an agenda, but even Christians should wrestle with Paine's arguments--since many of them are still heard today.