Thomas Paine Age Of Reason Analysis

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The Enlightenment during the 18th century is considered by historians as one of the most revolutionary and prominent periods in European history. Not only did it introduce open-ended ideas to the world through a philosophical movement, but it also breathed life into concepts that were considered abstract back then, such as liberty, human rights, and secularization. As a matter of fact, much of these theories that were regarded with utmost disdain can now be seen in the United States’ Bill of Rights, and they are some of the things Americans today value and fight for. One of the theorists that helped mold a right many Americans, Canadians, and Europeans have at present, that is the freedom to think for one’s self and therefore one’s beliefs, …show more content…
He wrote Age of Reason, where he reasoned that while God should still be believed in, churches are only human inventions that exploit people and make their beliefs in God impure. Therefore, secularization must transpire to fix this problem. There are various occurrences of bias in Age of Reason, specifically regarding word choice. Primarily when referring to the church, Paine uses harsh and negative words such as “monopolize,” “enslave,” “terrify,” and “adulterous”. These words not only paint the church as sinful, but also as an abuser of power. Through his diction, Paine makes it ironic that the church, which was supposed to be the pillar of divinity, was terrifying and monopolizing and enslaving people. Also, Paine generates more bias by adding in a rhetorical question to his work, which is “Can we conceive anything more destructive to morality than this?” This rhetorical question refers to man lying to himself simply to gain the benefits of the church, and it is one of the most powerful statements in Paine’s work as it makes the reader deeply think. The very fact that Paine introduces the ideas of untying the connection between the church and the state in order to restore the people’s pure beliefs in God, as well as that man should be happy by being mentally faithful to himself, promotes secularization and humanism. Additionally, Paine’s idea of secularization was further observed and underscored on March 29th, 2015. In this case, Arizona Senator Sylvia Allen wanted church attendance to be compulsory once again, as she believed that people are slowly eroding religion at every opportunity they have. She then referenced the 1950s when she was a child; on Sundays the stores were closed for religious purposes, and like the previous case religion was imposed on public schools. Nonetheless, what Allen claimed went
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