The Age of Reason

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The Age of Reason

For the 18th Century intellectual and scientific movement, see The Age of Enlightenment.

For the novel by Jean-Paul Sartre, see The Age of Reason (Sartre).

The Age of Reason is a philosophical treatise critical of the Bible written by the 18th Century British intellectual and American Founding Father Thomas Paine. Paine is best remembered for his political pamphlet Common Sense, which was credited with exciting colonial opinion in support of the American Revolutionary War.

1 Background
2 Content
3 Selected quotes
4 Editions in print
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Background

The Age of Reason was written during the 1790s. Paine wrote the first part of the book in France during the first two months of his imprisonment in December 1793. Paine was in jail (and scheduled to be guillotined) for protesting the execution of Louis XVI, so the first section was published in a French translation. After his release from prison in November 1794, Paine wrote the second part at the urging of James Monroe. The completed work was published in 1794.

Paine fell out of favor with the public due to the publication of this book, and he was marginalized as a pariah upon his return to America until his death in 1809. Nonetheless, his treatise became quite influential in the history of the skeptical, rationalist, and freethinking movements, and remains one of the most persuasive critiques of the Bible and other "revealed religions" ever written.

[edit] Content

The Age of Reason is divided into two parts, with the first part being preceded by the Editor's Introduction.

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[edit] Selected quotes

[edit] On the Old Testament

"Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible [NOTE: It must be borne in mind that by the "Bible" Paine always means the Old Testament alone. -- Editor.] is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon, than the Word of God. 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."

-Chapter 7

[edit] On divine revelation

"No one will deny or dispute the power of the Almighty to make such a communication if he pleases. But admitting, for the sake of a case, that something has been revealed to a certain person, and not revealed to any other person, it is revelation to that person only. When he tells it to a second person, a second to a third, a third to a fourth, and so on, it ceases to be a revelation to all those persons. It is revelation to the first person only, and hearsay to every other, and, consequently, they are not obliged to believe it.

It is a contradiction in terms and ideas to call anything a revelation that comes to us at second hand, either verbally or in writing. Revelation is necessarily limited to the first communication. After this, it is only an account of something which that person says was a revelation made to him; and though he may find himself obliged to believe it, it cannot be incumbent on me to believe it in the same manner, for it was not a revelation made to me, and I have only his word for it that it was made to him."

-Chapter 2

[edit] On Paine's personal beliefs

"As several of my colleagues, and others of my fellow-citizens of France, have given me the example of making their voluntary and individual profession of faith, I also will make mine; and I do this with all that sincerity and frankness with which the mind of man communicates with itself.

I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.

I believe the equality of man, and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.

But, lest it should be supposed that I believe many other things in addition to these, I shall, in the progress of this work, declare the things I do not believe, and my reasons for not believing them."

-Chapter 1

[edit] Editions in print

Citadel Press, 1948 and 1974, paperback, with biographical introduction by Philip Foner: ISBN 0-8065-0549-4
Prometheus Books, 1984 paperback: ISBN 0-87975-273-4
Gramercy Press, 1993 hardcover: ISBN 0-517-09118-6
Dover Publications, 2004 paperback: ISBN 0486433935