The age of TREASON!!!!

The Age of Reason

 

                My title is very outlandish, with the age of treason but Paine really did go against the status quo during his time. When the age of Reason was published it was highly criticized and Paine went from being an American hero to taboo. Although I don’t necessarily agree with Paine’s way of going about his criticism I give him a lot of credit for gathering the courage to publish his criticism. Although the Thomas Jefferson letter shows us Paine was not alone, Paine put his name and reputation out there. Paine’s like the lady gaga of today not being ashamed to put themselves out there.

                Now I am a catholic as I have said in many of my blogs which gives me a unique perspective to a lot of the texts we have read and I think Paine is looking to argue. I wasn’t crazy about Socrates’ personality and Paine’s is very similar. I love when people form their own unique opinion but I hate when others try to make another opinion sound idiotic. Paine really pulls apart Christianity very brutally and without caution. Paine talks to his reader as if he is above them and that arrogance doesn’t persuade me because why would I want to agree with the opinions of a miserable person! You can have the soundest evidence in the world and you can be very persuasive with your words but most of the time it’s the character that wins me over.

                Now I do agree with a lot of Paine’s reasoning in his criticism, this does not make me go against my religion because I love being able to question things and dive deeper, and this makes me feel more firmly rooted in my faith. I can see that the bible isn’t perfect in any aspect but the message and morals of the Bible hold true to me. Some things I found interesting is Paine talked about the apostle Thomas who didn’t believe the rising of Christ because he couldn’t see it with his own eyes, and Paine chooses not to either. Not having faith in anything isn’t magical. We do not live in a magical world, but believing in the extraordinary is what makes this Earth a livable place. Like Santa Clause it is so much better to believe then to be the kid who tells everyone he doesn’t exist. Now God is not Santa Clause…that might have come off wrongly.  An interesting connection between the Age of Reason and the Daodejing and I guess Genesis is the idea of coming from a place of struggle gets you the respect and ability to lead the numbers. The Daodejing spoke of kings calling themselves orphans and the forlorn to be ruler. Jesus was born in a stable, Moses was abandoned and Mohammed was a mule driver. There is something about coming from a place of despair that draws people to them.

                Paine is a very smart man and I am so impressed by his courage and commitment to his ideas and thoughts that he went through with publishing them. It takes a strong man to go against a crowd and at the time no one talked about him cause of his act of TREASON against the church, now he is studied for his Age Of Reason.