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.