Essay On Thomas Paine
In the pre-civil war era, we can define key contributors to American history as being either stuck in the past, of their time, or ahead of their time. Most will argue that those who were ahead of their time had a bigger influence on America's development and its evolving issues than the others. I'm going to discuss someone "ahead of their time" who I believe impacted America the most based on his ideas and actions.
In the late eighteenth century, a man named Thomas Paine was the first to publish a convincing argument for becoming independent from Britain in his pamphlet Common Sense. Paine was one of many forward thinkers of his time, but unlike the others who only considered being independent, he was the one to get colonists to think …show more content…
His criticism of religion in The Age of Reason was because he saw, “the exceeding probability that a revolution in the system of government would be followed by a revolution in the system of religion.” Paine questioned systems of religion and government that had been upheld for centuries, something that a man of his time would not even consider. In The Age of Reason, he argued that, “All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.” This is a shocking statement, even for people of today’s time, but it set the tone for questions about the relationship between church and state. Paine knew that colonists didn’t want to be “enslaved” to their government, which they also believed shouldn’t “monopolize power and profit,” so why would this be any different for religion? Not only that, but if church and state weren’t separated, wouldn’t government be more likely to become corrupt due to this monopolization? After reading Paine’s w¬ork it’s easy to see how these questions may come up, as both church and state are “human inventions” prone to corruption. Paine set out to uncover this corruption and even contradictions in religion, not to condemn believers, but to educate and aide them to be better
In the late eighteenth century, a man named Thomas Paine was the first to publish a convincing argument for becoming independent from Britain in his pamphlet Common Sense. Paine was one of many forward thinkers of his time, but unlike the others who only considered being independent, he was the one to get colonists to think …show more content…
His criticism of religion in The Age of Reason was because he saw, “the exceeding probability that a revolution in the system of government would be followed by a revolution in the system of religion.” Paine questioned systems of religion and government that had been upheld for centuries, something that a man of his time would not even consider. In The Age of Reason, he argued that, “All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.” This is a shocking statement, even for people of today’s time, but it set the tone for questions about the relationship between church and state. Paine knew that colonists didn’t want to be “enslaved” to their government, which they also believed shouldn’t “monopolize power and profit,” so why would this be any different for religion? Not only that, but if church and state weren’t separated, wouldn’t government be more likely to become corrupt due to this monopolization? After reading Paine’s w¬ork it’s easy to see how these questions may come up, as both church and state are “human inventions” prone to corruption. Paine set out to uncover this corruption and even contradictions in religion, not to condemn believers, but to educate and aide them to be better