Summary Of The Age Of Reason By Thomas Paine

“The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph,” imagine hearing that when you need motivation in what seems like the scariest time of your life. Thomas Paine created this pamphlet, Common Sense, in January 1776. Some may question the purpose, and that was to motivate Americans to fight for what they believe in, what they want and what they deserve during the British conflict. Throughout Crisis No. 1, Thomas Paine uses pathos to persuade the colonist and revolutionaries to go to war against the British. Paine talks about how the future will improve, and mentions God many times throughout his pamphlet.

In this contemporary era more people do not identify with God and in turn have become more skeptical of God. This shift can be seen in Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason; which is an excellent example of deism. Paine spares no detail on why he does not believe in the Bible and why he does not believe God is continually working in the world. Jonathan Edwards’ sermon, A Divine and Supernatural Light, on the other hand, adamantly believes in the Bible and that God is actively present in the world. Edwards’s provides an excellent example of Christianity. These two authors create a snapshot of the prevailing, in Edwards’s case, and emerging, in Paine’s case, worldviews of their respective era.

Religion played a crucial role in Paine's argument. He knew that the most of colonists had some sort of religion that he can use as a basis for his argument. One of the points that he made was that a “distinction … of men into Kings and Subjects,” is not from god, it is from the “heathens,” (Paine, 72). Paine made sure to tell the readers that this interpretation is directly from the Bible so if anyone wanted to check for themselves they can. He supported many of the things he said from the Bible so that people would not question it. He used stories of how Israel wanted a king even though god himself did not want one to voice his opposition of the leadership of monarchy. The Bible was a major source that Paine used in order to unify the people under one cause. Before this essay people did not know who to side with, the new colonies or the monarchy, who they have who they have been loyal to until this point. Now Common Sense gives them a reason to support the

As alluded to in the previous paragraph, Thomas Paine identified as a deist. Similar to revealed religions, deism, or natural theology, teaches that there must have been a “divine First Cause” (Introduction, pg. 11), simply meaning that God created all things; however, natural religion differs from revealed religion in the fact that deist view God as simply that, they do not believe that the deity intervenes with humans in any aspects other than that of creation. In analyzing the core beliefs of each category of religion it is important to consider what actions must be taken to serve the Lord; Paine, as well as other deist, claim “the best way to honor the deity was trough the exercise of reason and

Thomas Paine was not one to discriminate others because of their religion, but he did have pity for those who believed in God through the church. This is shown when Paine states, “I do not creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the

During the Age of Enlightenment there were many philosophers that thought differently when it came to humans and their actions. This all started back in the 17th and 18th century in Europe. One day all the thinkers came together to talk about their different ideas at an enlightenment party. Philosophers with different backgrounds and ideologies were able to unite and discussed the world and mankind. Although all of them had different beliefs, there was one idea that everyone had in common.The main idea shared by these enlightenment thinkers was that individual freedom could improve different aspects of society. John Locke believed individual freedom could improve freedom in government, Voltaire believed individual freedom

The Enlightenment was a European intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition. The French Revolution gave rise to Enlightenment ideas as for it gave people a language to articulate injustices. During the time of the French Revolution, there were many social conflicts that cause individuals to question the ideas of the Enlightenment and present their views and thoughts of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment was initially seen as positive effect; however, the social conflicts and the amount of violence and events that occurred within the French Revolution resulted in people challenging the Enlightenment views of society, politics, and human nature. Documents two, three, four, five, six, ten, and eleven are representations of how the social conflicts caused people to seek freedom and better privileges, and uses their view of Enlightenment to achieve their goal.

Paine realized that his work would have been ignored had it lacked style. Each individual has a certain style that motivates them and appeals to their senses. Realizing this, Paine believed that the manner in which he composed his ideas for the reader to be of importance. In doing so, he mentions various comments with great significance to emphasize the importance of the point he is trying to get across. One statement that he makes is, “The blood of the slain, the weeping

​Thomas Paine's Common Sense is a seminal piece of American literature and American history; arguably it's the most important piece. Paine wrote Common Sense in 1775-1776, and it's theme was to spread his political beliefs. He wanted American independence from the British monarchy. The pamphlet was anonymously released on January 10th, 1776, and it explained to the reader why the colonies needed to rebel against their British oppressors. It was sold far and wide across the colonies, and it was successful; it inspired many of the soldiers during the initial summer of rebellion in 1776. The whole idea of the pamphlet revolves around persuading the reader to side with the rebels in their valiant fight for independence, and he absolutely uses contemporary persuasive techniques in his writing. He uses facts about the present, he looks towards the future, and he uses religion to persuade his readers. In fact, it's a testament to how the act of persuasion has been very similar over the last 238

In the 17th century, the Puritan era ended and Rationalism was on the rise. The Rationalist supporting the movement were tired of being told how to live, and what to believe. They put logic over religious faith and began to think of God as more of a “clockmaker”. Their faith that was once undisputable, was forming into something new. They learned to voice logical opinions through writing.

Paine may not have been the perfect man but he did have great ideas at least for some people in America. In Hogeland sure essay he describes how pains ideas are greatly divided here in the 21st-century. For example pain talks about not getting religion and politics mixed in with each other, as in don’t let your beliefs in God affect the way a country should be ran “Those objecting to religious-right projects like teaching creationism in schools invoke Paine the Deist, exponent of scientific inquiry. Yet WallBuilders, a conservative Christian organization, cites a 1797 speech in which Paine criticized science teachers for overemphasizing reason and ignoring the "Divine Author." (Hogeland, p69) this is the main theme Hogland is trying to get at. People today are very particular about their politics and how they should be run based on ideas of the past for example, the constitution that was written in the 1700s by the founding fathers of America. People today find this document to be life or death if you want to go against it, its is considered un-American or completely against republicanism and democracy. He is saying people change their views based on what is most acceptable to them at

Paine then talks about the concepts of monarchy and hereditary succession and how Israel once did not have a king but the ancient Jewish people had wanted one to keep the order and the peace among them. Paine says when the Jews decided they wanted a king and God was infuriated, pages from the bible were displayed in this

Why’d Thomas Paine choose to write the Crisis No.1 ? The Crisis No 1 was published on Dec 4, 1776 he began writing a series of 16 pamphlets, the Crisis No. 1 was one of them, the people feared god will give up on them, god almighty wouldn’t give to military destruction, or leave them unsupported. Thomas Paine uses pathos in Crisis No.1 because he’s explaining how he felt about god, also with people he felt that god was #1 to him and his people dominates him.

In a time when faith and hard labor kept the majority of society alive, the introduction of reason by the Enlightenment was initially perceived as a threat. People had focused on their faiths and grasped the traditions and rituals of their dogmas. The Enlightenment introduced the possibility of faith and reason coinciding and cooperating to form a more civilized and equal society to replace the Old Regime, and the changes lasted far after the period of the Enlightenment.

Throughout “The Age of Reason,” Thomas Paine gives several examples for why he is opposed to Christianity. Before I began reading this essay, I was absolutely positive that I was going to disagree with every point that Paine had to make and every opinion that he expressed. It did not take long for me to realize that I had made the wrong assumption. There was more than one occasion while reading “The Age of Reason” that I discovered I actually agreed with Paine's opinion/belief. This encouraged me to read “The Age of Reason” once again, but this time with an open-mind. I decided that I would also take notes on the similarities and differences between Paine's worldview and mine.