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The Age of Reason - Thomas Paine

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Tom Paine wrote the "Age of reason" over 230 years ago and it stands the test of time. His assessment of the Bible and his systematic approach to applying reason and logic to decipher whether it is the Word of God or a book written by men is extraordinary. He was one of the few who actually *read* the Bible and then peeled it back for examination. Paine concludes the Bible is not the word of God, it was written by men, loaded with inconsistencies, errors and can not prove authenticity of authorship (e.g., Moses did not write the Torah or first 5 books of the Bible). Paine was a Deist and makes a great case for his belief system. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a thorough analysis of the Bible from beginning to end from a very smart man. BnB Beatles Depot

The Age of Reason is Mr. Paine's criticism of the Bible and his vindication of Deism.

Paine attempts to refute the Bible using only contradictions within the Bible as evidence of its falsehood. Some of the main points that Paine argues are:

- Moses did not author the Torah. He says that the Torah is only credible because Moses was credible, and if it is the case that Moses did not write it, we have no reason to regard five anonomously authored books.
- That the Bible being, quote, divinely inspired, is impertinent. It is an historical account, and being such, it is either a true or it is not. Inspiration has little to do with documenting history.
- The inconsistency of the Old Testament God with the New Testament God. How does one reconcile vengelful and wrathful with the all loving God?
- The impertinance of the history of the Jewish people to the message of salvation.
- Elisha's retaliation of she bears against the youths who call him bald head.
- The irrelevance of the Books of the Minor Prophets in the Old Testament.
- The fact that the gospels give different accounts, some mentioning things differently than the others.
- The idea that revelation is only revelation to the person to whom it is revealed. To anyone else it is only hearsay. In this way, no one can truly be punished for disbelieving a person who has reportedly received revelation.

This was a very interesting book. I recommend it to those who do not believe in the Bible as a strong argument for their case. I also recommend it to those who do believe so that they can solidify their faith by embracing tough questions.

I was going to write my review tomorrow, but I couldn't wait. This is absolutely the best book I have ever read. Thomas Paine absolutely destroyed the Bible. I challenge any Christian alive today who hasn't read this book to read it, I challenge you. The hardcore Christians, the fundamentalists, and those who take the Bible as the literal word of God, I dare you. When you're through reading this, you'll never pick up the Bible again, I promise you. Paine starts his book of by saying he believes in one God and no more. Just one, not a three in one special you get with Christianity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit). He brilliantly and eloquently lays out all the hypocrisies, inaccuracies, and contradictions in the Old and New Testament. Paine says the word of God cannot be written in some book because it is pure. Man can take his word and twist it around however it suits him. I told a few people that if this one true God does exist, man has severely distorted his word. With 1,500 Christian faiths in the U.S. alone and 38,000 worldwide, and so many different religions, how can we say ANY of them are the true word of God. Different religions with different "holy scriptures" all claiming to be the true word of God. As Thomas Paine says, how can they all be right? My point exactly! This man thought 214 years ago how I think today.

He says when someone gets a message directly from a higher power, it's a revelation. But when I turn around and tell you, it now becomes second hand information. And Paine doesn't do "second-hand" information, and neither do I. He lays out a brilliant example: when the apostle Thomas didn't believe Jesus had risen and people saw him, he said he had to see it for himself. He wasn't going to believe it simply because someone else told him. Thomas shows us right here why we should be skeptics of what others say, especially when it comes to religion.

Paine shows how one book of the Bible says one thing, and yet another book says something else. Example: in the Gospel of Matthew, there are 28 generations between Jesus and King David. In Luke, there are 42. Well gee, since all of these men followed Jesus, wouldn't they agree? And when Jesus was crucified and the earthquake came, only Matthew mentions it. Why? Paine says that either the gospels were great liars, or that these men DID NOT author the books of the Bible. There are just too many contradictions to prove him wrong. The angel who was to tell of the "holy conception" came to Joseph in one Gospel, but to Mary in another. How can there be so many contradictions in a book that has been claimed to be inspired by God? This is why Paine said he does not believe the Bible is the true word of God. He also says that if one part of the Bible has contradictions, how can we trust any of it? And how can we simply discount other "holy" inspired books like the Koran, but believe in the Bible when it has soooooo many obvious contradictions? How can pastors preach this every Sunday? How can they tell their congregation of the earthquake in Matthew's account, but when they read from Luke, Mark, or John, not mention it? Don't the pastors even realize this?

There is the assumption that Moses wrote the Torah, or the first five books the Bible. The children of Israel (having reached the promised land)ate a food called maana. Moses died before the children reached the promised land, even the Bible says this. How then did Moses write what the children ate when he was dead?

So what does Thomas Paine do in this book? Simple. He points out the hypocrisies,inaccuracies,and contradictions of the "holy" Bible...................and doesn't even go outside of the Bible to do it! Do you know what would happen if pastors were to read this book and see all the hypocrisies of their Bible? What would they make of it?

Even in Genesis, one chapter says the things around Adam came first and then Adam was made, but the next chapter says Adam was made first and THEN the things around him. If God inspired the Bible, wouldn't it be consistent from Genesis all the way to Revelations? One more thing: Paine points out that the word "prophesy" meant a poet or someone who played an instrument in those days, not someone who could tell the future. He points out how many so called "prophets" in the Old Testament ended up being wrong about their predictions. As time passed, the word prophet became synonymous with telling the future. So the church took it and ran with it.

Thomas Paine was such a brilliant man. He's one example of why so many people incorrectly believe we are a Christian nation when we are not. Many of our Founders were like Paine, deists, not Christian.

This is a must read for every man, woman, child, and if your pet can read, give it to them too.

This book is great. If you enjoy revolutionary American history or philosophy this book is for you. Thomas Paine was a British pamphleteer, revolutionary, radical, inventor, and intellectual. He is one of the most influential people in the American Revolution. This book really gives insight into the religious views of the founding fathers.

At 53, I'm finally willing to listen to this great book. Loved the first part, kinda skimmed the second part because it got little tedious in the details as he did a more than thorough job of exposing inconsistencies in the Bible. His message is very good for those of us challenging our inherited beliefs, yet think he could've toned down some of the inflammatory language and perhaps would've had more people at his funeral. As Mark Twain wrote-"I must studiously and faithfully unlearn a great many things I have somehow absorbed." This book is helpful if you, like me, have a lot to unlearn.

Common Sense by Thomas Paine was a hit 250 years ago, and still is today. It's logical to conclude that since this author's opinions in Common Sense were on the mark, and still are, his opinions with respect to religion might also be worthy of consideration and reading. How could he be so right on one level, and wrong on another. It is interesting that millions of Christians champion this patriot as gift from God, yet they are completely unaware of his greatest work, The Age of Reason. It is a fascinating paradox. Paine was one of the greatest soldiers in the cause of freedom, and one day he will stand as one of the bravest soldiers in the cause of overcoming one of the greatest tyrannies over the mind of man--religious ideology (Thomas Jefferson). All religious "believers" owe it to themselves to read Paine's Age of Reason. It is a refreshing work, and a liberating introduction to self realization. A true and influencial classic.

Actor Robin Field reads the last book by Thomas Paine (1737-1809). Born in England to Quaker parents, Paine met Benjamin Franklin, who convinced him to move to America, where he soon became a contributing editor to The Pennsylvania Magazine and an ardent supporter of American independence from England. In 1776 his pamphlet Common Sense, according to George Washington, "worked a powerful change in the minds of many men." Washington read Paine's The Crisis to his soldiers to encourage them during the Revolutionary War. Paine's Rights of Man, written in defense of the French Revolution, resulted in his being tried for treason in England and imprisoned for ten months, where he wrote much of The Age of Reason, an assault on The Holy Bible -- demonstrating its inconsistencies and contradictions, citing chapter and verse. However, Thomas Jefferson claimed that Paine's principles were his own, and John Adams wrote in 1805: "I know not whether any man in the world has had more influence on its inhabitants or affairs for the last thirty years." The reading is over eight hours long on seven Audio CDs.

This book was highly controversial when it was initially published, and rightly so. In it, Paine unapologetically attacks the various religions that he sees as parodies of true theism; he dismisses the "sacred dogma" taught by various churches as pure nonsense. He goes through the Jewish and Christian scripture and points out inconsistencies, flaws, and ludicrous stories as they exist within the text; he claims several times that the man Jesus may have never existed, and was merely the invention of a monk in his cell, forging the writings seen as holy to so many millions.

Paine never fails to disappoint; he was a radical of his time, and could have easily been executed for treason against Britain, had they won the revolution, and barely escaped death in France. When he died, only six people attended his funeral, because of the outrage against his deistic views. Paine never apologized for his criticisms of the Christian system, and to anybody interested in the views of a revolutionary, inspired by the ideals of the Enlightenment, this is the book for you.

Writing this in a time of extraordinary intolerance for freethinkers, and even in the dawn of the US at a time when religion - or more accurately the self-imposed religious order - still ran the show, Paine writes a clear, cutting and precise dissection of the Bible, documenting clearly its fabrication, contradictions and true awfulness with no evidence other than the books themselves. He documents how the "word of God" was determined by votes 300 years after JC supposedly lived and exposes all of religion's self-serving hypocrisy and ridiculous man-made pretensions to represent the maker. The interesting note here is that Paine is by no means an Atheist. He is a Deist (one who believes the universe was created by God but that that is self-evident from the world, stars and creation around us, and his representation of justness in our inherent moral code, and that God plays no daily part in our lives). And it's all the more powerful for that. Demonstrating a mastery of the language sadly lacking in today's society, Paine demonstrates the courage (even fearing death as he did during much of its writing) to express articulately his point. This is more relevant in today's world of hypocrisy, contradictions and self-serving revelation from the religious right than ever. A must read. And to those of you who wrap yourselves in the flag while claiming this is a Christian country, read a book by a true American hero and challenge the utterly inaccurate bluster, fake outrage and moral double-standards of your cohorts.

It amazes me that the same people who want to put crosses and biblical commandments in public places, and use "The US was founded as a Christian nation..." as an excuse for their ignorant hypocrisy, have the gall to bring up our forefathers when the man often cited as the Father of the American Revolution has written such a scathing critique of organized religion. And it's not just Thomas Paine. What about Jefferson's Bible "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth" which removed all mentions of supernatural powers and boiled the teachings of Jesus down to moral lessons that all religions and non-religious people can agree on?

If you've ever found yourself arguing with an idiot (yes, I see the irony considering the title of a popular book by just such an idiot) and they brought up how we're a Christian nation - YOU need to read The Age of Reason.