Share this comment
Sounds good, but later in life with the publication of "The Age of Reason," Paine didn't have much good to say about the Bible or all religions in general. He declared himself a Deist while saying the Bible could have been writing under the influence of a demon, as a way of controlling and providing wealth for churches. He certainly succ…
Sounds good, but later in life with the publication of "The Age of Reason," Paine didn't have much good to say about the Bible or all religions in general. He declared himself a Deist while saying the Bible could have been writing under the influence of a demon, as a way of controlling and providing wealth for churches. He certainly succeeded in alienating nearly everyone, including Washington, whom he thought incompetent. His funeral was barely attended. Quakers refused him burial among their plots, so he was interred on his farm, his bones dug up and later disappeared in the fog of history. Yet, his early words are still out there, blowing in the wind.
But then he wasn’t trying to convince a majority of the people to go to war to win their freedom in the later publication. He among others weren’t themselves very religious but understood the majority of people were and cleverly appealed to their understandings and emotional sensibilities. Very curious where Paine’s bones did end up. 🤔
He certainly was a good wordsmith, or as we would recognize today--a political spinner.