Paine knew that Christianity was not a new or unique religion, and declared that if Jesus had intended to found a new religion he would have written the system himself. He was willing to admit that Jesus might have been an actual character, although he had found no historical corroboration of the fact. When he compared the conflicting accounts of the genealogy of Jesus by Matthew and Luke, their discrepancies convinced him that this genealogy, instead of being a solemn truth, "is not even a reasonable lie." If these two Apostles started the history of Jesus with a palpable falsehood, "what authority is there for believing the strange things they tell us afterwards?" As for the four Gospels, he was convinced that they were not written by the persons to whom they are ascribed, as not even the names of their authors were known at the time the New Testament was assembled. Thomas Paine was also a deep student of astronomy. When he considered the immensity of space and the vast number of worlds and solar systems encompassed therein, he failed to understand how "the Almighty, who had millions of worlds equally dependent upon His protection, should quit the care of all the rest, and come to die in our world because, they say, one man and one woman had eaten one apple." Although he was unable to accept the Jewish or Christian concept of God, he still called himself a Deist. But the God he worshipped was the "First Cause eternally existing, of a nature totally different to any material existence we know of, and by the power of which all things exist." As Space is beginningless and endless, could God be less than Space? As Time is beginningless and endless, could God be less than Time? The Christian faith, in which God is presented as a limited Being, seemed to him to be a "species of Atheism -- a sort of religious denial of God." Thomas Paine believed that this Universe is governed by immutable Law. A miracle, therefore, was inconceivable. "Unless we know the whole extent of nature's laws," he argued, "we are not able to judge whether anything that may appear miraculous to us be within, or contrary to her natural power of acting." Hence the "miraculous birth" of Jesus appeared to him as an "obscene humbug," and he decried the sort of faith built upon such a premise. Thomas Paine's own faith was centered in the belief of a First Cause eternally existing and of a Universe governed by Law, while his religion was summarized in his famous sentence: My country is the world, and my religion is to do good. As his religion transcended the formal professions of any cult or sect, he refused to accept the creed of any Church. "My mind is my church," he said, "and churches are but human inventions, set up to enslave mankind and monopolize power and profit." The expression of such thoughts as these caused Thomas Paine to be called an infidel. Christian writers have claimed that he died a drunkard, that on his death-bed he confessed his error in attacking religious dogma, but these lies have long since been disproved. A splendid vindication of Paine as a temperate man to the day of his death, and as one who maintained his philosophic convictions to the last, is to be found in the works of Robert G. Ingersoll. Paine maintained that infidelity "does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving." It consists in professing to believe what one does not actually believe. Paine showed from history the record of the Christian Church and boldly asserted that however unwilling the partisans of the Christian system may be to believe or acknowledge it, it is nevertheless true that the age of ignorance commenced with the Christian system. There was more knowledge in the world before that period than for many centuries afterward. (1) Paine was an alchemist and inventor like Count Rumford. He is claimed as a leading light now by three countries but Rumford is claimed by none except perhaps Bavaria which is no more. I rue the day that this kind of lying became the norm. And there is only one way that Theosophy (From whom the above quote comes.) can claim he was one of their members or lineage and that is through alchemy as I see it. They talk about adepts behind the scenes and claim these adepts were part of their secret group but they did not even exist (Unless you believe they are part of the Chain of Ascended Masters). |
