The Age of Reason: Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous
Theology, a deistic treatise written by eighteenth-century British
radical and American revolutionary Thomas Paine, critiques institutionalized
religion and challenges the inerrancy of the Bible. Published in three parts in
1794, 1795, and 1807, it was a bestseller in America, where it caused a
short-lived deistic revival. British audiences, however, fearing increased
political radicalism as a result of the French revolution, received it with more
hostility. The Age of Reason presents common deistic arguments; for
example, it highlights the corruption of the Christian Church and criticizes its
efforts to acquire political power. Paine advocates reason in the place of
revelation, leading him to reject miracles and to view the Bible as an ordinary
piece of literature rather than as a divinely inspired text. The Age of
Reason is not atheistic, but Deistic: it promotes natural religion and
argues for a creator-God.
— Excerpted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
