A review by darwin8u
The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine

4.0

Wow. It is amazing to me to think this book was written in 1794/95. One of the most influential thinkers/writers/pamphleteers of the American AND French revolutions. You can't read [a:Christopher Hitchens|3956|Christopher Hitchens|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1334621246p2/3956.jpg], [a:Richard Dawkins|1194|Richard Dawkins|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1188068989p2/1194.jpg] or [a:Bart D. Ehrman|643|Bart D. Ehrman|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1237161718p2/643.jpg] and not feel that these authors ALL owe huge debts of gratitude to Thomas Paine and his last book. 'The Age of Reason', which essentially advocated deism, promoted humanism, reason and freethinking, and violently quarelled with ALL institutionalized religion (especially Christianity, viz the Bible), turned one of the heroes of the American Revolution into a social pariah. Only 6 people showed up for his funeral in 1809 (15 years after 'The Age of Reason' was first published) because many were still horrified by 'The Age of Reason'. Thomas Paine was an amazing thinker and like Hitch, I might not always agree with the end result of their thinking, but I am always amazed at the energy, force, originality and bravery of their thought.