Paine To Franklin

Thomas Paine, born in England in 1737, was a major figure that inspired and witnessed the revolutions that developed the United States as well as abolish the French monarchy. Famous for writing some pamphlets such as Common Sense, Rights of Men, Thoughts on Government, and his most enduring work, The Age of Reason, made him a global figure that anticipated modern ideas on human rights, rationalism, and atheism.

The Age of Reason was written intentionally to undermine the organized religion and the structures associated with it. Paine was against everything related to organized religion by writing “All national institutions of churches whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.” Even though this sounds like Paine is declaring himself as an atheist, he clarifies that God does exists as a hand of the creation of the universe. The Age of Reason was Paine’s deism to push God and established religion apart from each other. Benjamin Franklin declared his beliefs about the bible and subjected a few of the passages to a test of reason and logic where he showed that the claims made in the bible did not stand to reason. Thomas Paine followed Benjamin Franklin’s example, but he applied the test on a much larger scale. Paine scrutinized the entire bible justifying his belief that passages are not the word of God, but rather a human invention. The difference between Paine and Franklin is that Paine disagreed with the entire bible; whereas Franklin only disagreed with specific sections. Even though Franklin and Paine shared similar beliefs about the merits of the bible, Franklin had a much less radical disposition than Paine did; therefore, he is remembered as a noble patriot in contrast to Paine who is remembered as an atheist. David Nash stated that Paine still encouraged the belief in God because he wanted religion to not be part of society to improve society. Unfortunately, most Christians did not see Paine's point and concluded that he was an atheist with no cause.

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