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About This Book:

Title: The Age of Reason (Notable American Authors)



Size
Height:         110
Width:          620
Weight:        150


Amazon Customer Reviews:
Average rating:    Based on 115 reviews

   A Missed Opportunity
It's 200 years since Paine's death and Christianity remains a popular religion. I was disappointed with this book as Paine states that Jesus Christ was "a virtuous and amiable man" and that he sees no reason for not believing that people like Mary, Joseph and Jesus existed. Where did Paine get his info that Jesus was virtuous and amiable? He doesn't say. He provides nothing in the way of evidence to support the notion that Jesus Christ was a real person.

At least he points out the purpose of religion: to terrify and enslave mankind. I think he wastes too much time on the absurdities of that tedious and unpleasant book, the old testament. In fact, in one footnote he admits that the old testament is "too ridiculous for criticism". So why waste so much time on it?

I found the letters to Samuel Adams at the back of the book more interesting and perhaps he could have covered some of the topics of these in his book, e.g. the act of prayer as an abomination that indicates that the person who prays is the sort of person who either distrusts God or who wishes to dictate to him.

Overall, not bad.
(06/11/2009)

   A master of logic and words
Thomas Pain's approach to every subject is from all sides. He manages to organize his thoughts so that he dismantles religion without anesthesia, a painless operation. He was an amazing man.
(05/21/2009)

   Good argument against Revelation
Thomas Paine makes as powerful and argument as one might hope to make against the idea that the Bible - both the Old Testament and the New Testament - can possibly be direct revelations from God. His logic is very sound that revelation only occurs first to one person, and after that to believe in revelation is to put a great deal of trust in the person to whom revelation was supposedly delivered. He also makes fine textual criticism of many parts of the Bible. While some of his analysis and criticism is not well-founded, the whole of his argument against revelation seems forceful. (five stars on that) Where I dissent with Paine is his overall bitter diatribe against the Christian religion itself (two stars on that). There is much yet good in the Christian message, and I wonder if Paine did not give enough credit to the Quaker belief system, which was undoubtedly formative for his father and for himself. Paine does not describe much about Deism as an alternative, save that it is faith in knowledge of God through Creation. One should read this book for its good (and not so good) arguments - but don't acquire the Nuvision Press copy. It is chalked full of embarrassingly bad typos that should have been fixed before publication.
(10/26/2008)

   Life Changing
I read this book about 20 years ago, and it got me thinking more and more about religion. I can't say that I was ever a "religious person", just that I needed to define what it is and how it fit in my life. This book had me questioning the bible, and that led to me questioning religion as a whole. I know this was not the intent of Mr. Paine, but I am beholding to him because his words began to open my eyes to the truth. I am proud to be an atheist.
(09/28/2008)

   Free-Thought
This is the exact reason why I must say that I'm proud to be an american, this literary classic totally de-bunks what is "expressed" in what we call the 'holy' bible. Thomas Paine had the courage to write this essay at A time when he most likely would've been imprisoned or executed for heresy. Thomas Paine, the man responsible for entitling this great country of ours the "United States Of America", he is A great american hero.
(07/17/2008)



Book Details Summary: The title of this book is The Age of Reason (Notable American Authors) and it was written by Thomas Paine. This edition of The Age of Reason (Notable American Authors) is in a Library Binding format. This books publish date is December 1969 and it has a suggested retail price of $125.00. There are pages in the book and it was published by Reprint Services Corp. The 10 digit ISBN is 0781247233 and the 13 digit ISBN is 9780781247238. For the most current lowest price, Click Here.