Angela Zaretzka
March 15, 2015
Professor Nengo
Anthropology 11:30-12:20

Religion as a Question While reading Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason, it is apparent that one can question their true faith and where their beliefs really come from. From Paine it brought many questions of my loyalties lie and where my faith comes from. Throughout life, from time to time, questions of what is true from the Lord can be muddy. With this writing, there are many contradictions, false facts, and inconsistent thoughts. Paine’s main thesis discussed in the writing was his open mindedness for others to accept other religions and not blindly follow other people with that they believe. According to Paine, people should be open minded and make their own way of their beliefs. Someone should never believe in a religion that they do not truly understand. He had written the book so others could see what others religions can bring to our civilization and acceptance of others perspective of life. Throughout the writing, Thomas Paine has many contradictions of his thoughts. First, from page 24, it is said that having a revelation is not a contradiction. Just because someone says something does not make it automatically true. It does not make the statement something that can be followed for the purpose of others faith. The example given about Moses and the stone tablets of the commandments gives a nice story to show what the religion is based on, however, how can someone receive something like this from a being who may or may not exist? If this said miracle did happen, why does not everyone get a stone tablet of these commandments when they are baptized or confirmed in the church? Why does Jesus not come again to prove his love? Another example his contradictions was on pages 29 and 30 discussing Satan and his victory of persuasion against Adam and Eve. It is said that Satan was an Angel of God but believed himself too good for Heaven, so he was sent to his own universe also known as Hell. Satan had a hold over Eve to eat the apple to give her original sin, but why was he not defeated by God for is wrongs? If God is the “Almighty Father” that is said to be, why could Satan not be abolished? According to page 30 as well, Satan is referred to as an Angel even though he is the Devil. Why is he called an Angel is he is not holy by any stand point? Do the other religions believe in the same Devil? In Paine’s writing, he has many false facts of the religions. First, Paine makes false facts about the Bible, discussed in page 112. With the books of Samuel were written in the Bible, they are inaccurate with his life cycle. Samuel’s pieces were written four years after his death, making it absolutely impossible for him to write anything. While it could be fought that the pieces were written before he had died, but it does not add up to everything else. Never heard of anyone coming back from the dead to write. Another falsehood in the writing is with in page 33 about Samson and his revelations of all his writings. These could be true or false, but not taken seriously according to Paine. These writings can not be taken lightly because the stories seem too good to be true. These stories are not works of God, merely they are pieces to be cautionary tales to tell others to be careful for people like these. Do these people poses the Devil in every day life?

Lastly, to go back to the revelations of page 23, Paine disbelieves his own church and the other churches as well. He basically states that he believes what the church stands for, just not all of the stories of the Bible. They are not true revelations of what are his considered everyday occurrences and miracles. Furthermore, Thomas Paine throughout the writing has inconsistent thoughts of his beliefs. First with the Egyptians and Moses on page 34. Moses does not introduce himself but the Lord speaks to him. The stories from the Old Testament are covered in cruelty and disgust. Paine dislikes the fact