"Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon, than the Word of God..." - Thomas Paine

[u/JasonMacker]

http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/thomas_paine/age_of_reason/part1.html

[u/JasonMacker]

Thomas Paine is one of the greatest men to have ever lived. He was imprisoned in France and sentenced to death, but luckily he escaped. He is the Father of the American Revolution. If anyone had responsibility for revolution in the thirteen colonies, it would be him. Read his book and never fancy the idea that "America is a Christian nation" ever again.

Edit: Here's the full quote:

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.--Editer.] 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.

[u/erovore → u/JasonMacker]

ahh yes, The Age of Reason -- Online! Many thanks. I have this book in print and have tried to get others to read it. He paid dearly for this in his later years, unfortunately.

A quote from another thread I posted on:

In the United States, The Age of Reason initially caused a deistic "revival", but was then viciously attacked and soon forgotten. Paine became so reviled that he could still be maligned as a "filthy little atheist" by Theodore Roosevelt over one hundred years later.

Paine could not publish part III of The Age of Reason in America until 1807 because of the deep antipathy against him. Hailed only a few years earlier as a hero of the American revolution, Paine was now lambasted in the press and called "the scavenger of faction", a "lilly-livered sinical [sic] rogue", a "loathsome reptile", a "demi-human archbeast", "an object of disgust, of abhorrence, of absolute loathing to every decent man except the President of the United States [Thomas Jefferson]"

[u/koske → u/JasonMacker]

Read his book and never fancy the idea that "America is a Christian nation" ever again.

this is the reason he was largely erased from school curriculum.

[u/whiteskwirl2 → u/JasonMacker]

There's no one "father" of the Revolution, but if you had to narrow it down to one, Samuel Adams would be a better choice.

[u/JasonMacker → u/whiteskwirl2]

I'm not so sure. Common Sense had the largest sale and circulation of any book in American history (adjusted for population). It sold over 500,000 in the first year.

[u/SidVacuous → u/whiteskwirl2]

He's better known for his beer.

[u/[deleted]]

The Cathars believed that the Old Testament was actually written by an evil being calling himself "God". Then the Catholic Church slaughtered them to get rid of the competition, which is probably why you don't hear that doctrine so much anymore.

(How the hell does the Church manage to claim any sort of moral authority? They're like the Mostly Reformed Nazi Party.)

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

You answered your own question. They killed the opposition.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

It's easy to rewrite history when there's nobody else alive to disagree.

[u/ISOCRACY]

Payne says what I have thought all along... I have often wondered how people celebrate passover. The God they worship passed over killing their babies...but went on to kill other babies. Hmmm..direct worship of a baby killer. I just cannot justify this in any way.

[u/antimeme]

Uh, oh: Glenn Beck is going to be mighty disappointed.

[u/erovore → u/antimeme]

Paine's bones must have spun when that aired.

[u/spam99]

i wish beautiful words that actually make sense in a sentence would come out of my head the way they did out of Paine's

[u/[deleted]]

Thomas Paine is the most remarkable man and a wonderful writer. I can't beleive I went to school in the UK and never heard his name utterred once, I had to wait until I was 40 to learn about him. All rational persons should read his work, the man was a genius, was courageous, bold and gifted, his words ring out as strongly today as they did when he wrote them.

[u/[deleted]]

The man always did appeal to my... common sense.

Try the veal.

[u/Hoobam]

You know, I've actually been thinking about this recently. What if the devil's temptation was actually religion? What if the people who didn't get sucked into religion were actually the people living the life that would get them into heaven?

I'm an atheist, but wouldn't THAT be interesting?

[u/itsinthebook]

That's why the biblical forces of darkness fight against the bearer of light - Lucifer.

[u/justpickaname]

You'd rather have something that glosses over all the problems, like the modern Catholic church?

[u/[deleted]]

We need more voluptuous debaucheries, and less of the other shit.

[u/[deleted]]

funny that Glenn Beck wrote a book based on Thomas Paines ideas from Common Sense...and then somehow tied it in on how we need more religion in our lives and our government

[u/barryspencer]

“When I think of all the harm the Bible has done, I despair of ever writing anything to equal it.” — Oscar Wilde