Thomas Paine is arrested in France for treason. Though the charges against him were never detailed, he had been tried in absentia on December 26 and convicted. Before moving to France, Paine was an instrumental figure in the American Revolution as the author of Common Sense, writings used by George Washington to inspire the American troops. Paine moved to Paris to become involved with the French Revolution, but the chaotic political climate turned against him, and he was arrested and jailed for crimes against the country.
When he first arrived in Paris, Paine was heartily welcomed and granted honorary citizenship by leaders of the revolution who enjoyed his antiroyalty book The Rights of Man. However, before long, he ran afoul of his new hosts. Paine was strictly opposed to the death penalty under all circumstances and he vocally opposed the French revolutionaries who were sending hundreds to the guillotine. He also began writing a provocative new book, The Age of Reason, which promoted the controversial notion that God did not influence the actions of people and that science and rationality would prevail over religion and superstition. Although Paine realized that sentiment was turning against him in the autumn of 1793, he remained in France because he believed he was helping the people.
After he was arrested, Paine was taken to Luxembourg Prison. The jail was formerly a palace and unlike any other detainment center in the world. He was treated to a large room with two windows and was locked inside only at night. His meals were catered from outside, and servants were permitted, though Paine did not take advantage of that particular luxury. While in prison, he continued to work on The Age of Reason.
Paine’s imprisonment in France caused a general uproar in America and future President James Monroe used all of his diplomatic connections to get Paine released in November 1794. Ironically, it wasn’t long before Paine came to be despised in the United States, as well. After The Age of Reason was published, he was called an anti-Christ, and his reputation was ruined. Thomas Paine died a poor man in 1809 in New York.
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A courageous and brilliant man who paid a high price for his efforts to further enlightenment over Bronze-age superstition.
Wonder if Thomas Paine wrote this before or after he became the atheist that he is claimed to be.
“I have as little superstition in me as any man living, but my secret opinion has ever been, and still is,
that GOD Almighty will not give up a people to military destruction, or leave them unsupportedly to
perish, who have so earnestly and so repeatedly sought to avoid the calamities of war by every decent
method which wisdom could invent. Neither have I so much of the infidel [unbeliever] in me as to
suppose that HE has relinquished the government of the world and given us up to the care of devils; and
as I do not, I cannot see on what grounds the king of Britain can look up to heaven for help against us: A
common murderer, a highwayman [bandit], or a housebreaker has as good a pretence as he.”
THE AMERICAN CRISIS, No. 1, 1776
http://americainclass.org/sources/makingrevolution/war/text2/painecrisis1776.pdf
A person should really take the time to read this.
Good question, Ginger. Like many of the founders of America Paine tended toward deism, recognizing a god manifest broadly in all of nature, rather than the prevailing belief in a god who was personally interested in the daily affairs of people.
Get an ant farm….with a thousand ants. You will study their eating habits, road building, nesting habits etc as a WHOLE. Nobody studues one individual ant, each, and keeps a log of that ants daily wishes, prayers, etc. I feel God is the same way. Maybe we will be judged individually but today while alive as a whole.
Probably before he factually found out the humans running the religions are all faulty and corrupt as shit…
When reading “Age of Reason” I wondered if some of the vitriol towards Christianity was *because* he was imprisoned and wanted to curry favor with his captors. Would it have been the same book if he was living free in the US?
Govts have always wanted to become the replacement for religion and God. Always.
I have learned few people can or will be open to changing their belief systems: political, religious etc.