A review by inquiry_from_an_anti_library
The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense fast-paced

1.0

Is This An Overview?

Religion has value, but has been corrupted by institutions.  Religious institutions are a human invention which creates justifications to persecute those who do not adhere to their claims, and to monopolize power.  Rituals are developed to filter those who accept the religion from those to be persecuted.  Rituals that are meant to be an expression of power. 

 

Faith is meant to be ubiquitous, but religious institutions have made faith exclusionary.  Certain groups are favored over others, and have select few individuals within the favored group who communicate with their deity. 

 

For religious institutions, only the ideas from religious texts are accepted.  Other ideas are persecuted.  Persecuting other ideas prevents improving the ideas, making society stagnant.  Religion prevents correcting limitations of ideas, which has led to many contradictions within religious texts. 

 

Caveats?

Methods of expressing ideas can be antediluvian, which can make the book difficult to read.  The focus of the book are the negative consequences of religion, specifically Christianity.  The author reflects on the contradiction found in the religious claims and their effects on society.  The book is not against religion, but against the institutions of religion.  The author declared oneself to have a faith.  Part of the antagonism for religious institution, is because the author was persecuted by the Church.