Tag Archives: Thomas Paine

THESE ARE THE TIMES THAT TRY MEN’S SOULS

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“These are the times that try men’s souls.” — Thomas Paine, 1776

Recently I have been re-reading the writings of Thomas Paine.  He’s the guy that sparked the American Revolution in 1776.  He started a viral protest against the insanely oppressive government of England, which was the most powerful nation on Earth at that time.  How did he do it?  He published a little pamphlet called “Common Sense” and started passing it out to fellow citizens  like George Washington, Ben Franklin, John Adams and thousands of others.  This, and many other protest in history such as those of Mohandas Gandhi in India and Martin Luther King in the US have been effective, in spite of overwhelming opposition.

Viral protests against government injustice and corporate criminals can be effective. Even the most powerful nations on Earth can’t control the whole population against their collective will. Many have tried and failed.  The current “New World Order” movement is succeeding at global control at an alarming rate. The day the entire population is subject to the will of a few criminals in government and commerce we are doomed. That time has come. The American colonists didn’t have the Internet. But, they also didn’t have global government capable of controlling all the media, the military, our private lives and the economy.  If we want to remain free we’ll have to communicate with each other and act as though our current lives and our future lives depend upon it.

Here is a recent video from The Guardian that illustrates the message in the present moment.

THOMAS PAINE – THE AGE OF REASON

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At the beginning of Part I of the Age of Reason, Thomas Paine lays out his personal creed:

“I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.

“I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavouring to make our fellow-creatures happy.But, lest it should be supposed that I believe many other things in addition to these, I shall, in the progress of this work, declare the things I do not believe, and my reasons for not believing them.I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe otherwise; they have the same right to their belief as I have to mine. But it is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.”

Thomas Paine, 1794

READ “THE AGE OF REASON” free at this link:   http://www.deism.com/theageofreason.htm

 

THE AGE OF REASON

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“I read the most excellent treatise and critique of that superstitious body of mythology written by the American revolutionary, Thomas Paine. Although Mr. Paine is not a popular fellow in Britain, having fathered the uprising against King George which resulted in the loss of the greatest possession ever claimed by the throne of England, he is nonetheless a man of preeminent intellect and prodigious reasoning ability.

His book, The Age of Reason; Being an Investigation of True and *Fabulous Theology, to my own system of logical assessment and evaluation represents the most thorough, factual and incontrovertible dissection of the Bible, which unfortunately serves our civilization as a guideline for survival.  After having read his preeminent work of logical vivisection upon the content of the Bible, and by abstraction, a commentary upon the paradigm of Western Civilization, it is no longer a mystery to me that humanity has endured so great an extent of war, misery, chaos, greed, destruction and mayhem inflicted by Western imperialism upon the Earth at the behest of, and with regal and religious blessings.

As for my personal observation and conviction concerning the matter of religion, I concur with the statement most ably stated by  Thomas Paine himself:

“I hope for happiness beyond this life. I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavouring to make our fellow-creatures happy.  I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.

All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.  I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe otherwise; they have the same right to their belief as I have to mine. But it is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.”  

(Definition of the word “fabulous” — adjective:  based on or told of in traditional stories; lacking factual basis or historical validity)

— An excerpt from SHERLOCK HOLMES: MY LIFE, by Lawrence R. Spencer

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