This website is dedicated to Thomas Paine, one of the greatest political and religious reformers in world history!

   Never heard of him? You’re not alone. I was 40 years old the first time I ever heard of him, nearly two decades after leaving college and seminary school. How a person could grow up in the United States of America (which he named) and not know about him is a disgrace, for we are profoundly indebted to him. But it isn’t surprising, given human nature, and I certainly understand why I never heard his name when I was studying for the ministry.

   Writer and philosopher extraordinaire, Thomas Paine rose to fame as the most effective proponent of democracy in history. He began his life of community service as one of the founding fathers of the United States of America. After this he became a leading voice for democratic reform in Great Britain, which was in turn followed by being one of the leading voices of the French Revolution. Then, in his twilight years, after a lifetime of service for the political freedom of humanity, he published what still stands today as the most famous and controversial book about religion ever written. And it cost him.

   Paine's meteoric rise to fame began with his first major work, titled Common Sense. This pamphlet in favor of American independence and democracy was published less than 6 months before the United States declared independence from Great Britain - and promptly sold 500,000 copies! To say this book was the manifesto of the American Revolution is sublime understatement. Consider the following: If you measure the book's sales volume against the total population of America at that time, then Common Sense still stands today as the single year best selling book in history! And Paine donated every penny of the windfall profits to support the cause!

   During the conflict, even when it appeared America might lose the war, Paine was the leading voice to continue the course, writing more than a dozen public letters in support of the cause, most of which began with the title: The American Crisis. One after another, each letter spread like wildfire throughout the Colonies as they were printed in every American paper, and in England, too.

   After American independence was won, Paine settled down to a more ordinary life for the next few years, his main passion now being an inventor. It was here that he worked to develop a smokeless candle, the forerunner to today's central draft burner, and designed the first iron span bridge. Unable to find the necessary funding for such an expensive construction project in the fledgling United States, Paine set sail for his ancestral home in England, where he found backers to build his bridge there. But the winds of democratic change in both England and France were overwhelming, inspired by the America he helped create. Within a few months he was totally immersed in the English reform movement and became a leading champion for democracy there. It was here that he penned his finest major politcal work, Rights of Man, which immediately became the fastest selling book in the history of England, despite the fact that the king kept sending the book's printers to jail! Within a few decades the ideas enumerated in this visionary work would revolutionize the constitution of England, but Paine was rewarded for his effort by having to flee the country to avoid being hanged. The authorities showed up at his home to arrest him just a few hours after his ship set sail.

   Escaping to France, Paine received a hero's welcome everywhere he went for his democratic reform work in America and England. The French Revolution had blossomed with the overthrow of the Bastille and he was impressed upon to join the new French National Assembly, a congressional body largely inspired by the new American government that the French had helped make possible. Paine immediately became one of the leading voices on how to establish a democratic system, constantly encouraging the other members, publicly and privately, to have faith that the people could govern themselves. Unfortunately, Paine was unable to speak much French and needed an interpreter. His detractors used this to paint him as an outsider, and when he argued that executing the deposed king was beneath the ideals that the Revolution sought to embody, some members accused him of treason. As rival factions developed and argued their points of view, Paine's group, with its focus on the common man, slowly lost ground in the Assembly over the next few years to more radical members. Indeed, by this time, several delegates and a number of civilians had been executed by the underhandedness of some of these extremists, and Paine, just four years ago a national hero, was now largely ignored and treated as a foreign interloper by much of the Assembly. Tired of the growing anarchy in Paris, and warned that some of his enemies were seeking his life, Paine left the city for a safe haven in the countryside.

   As the chaos in Paris spiraled out of control into the worst year in French history, later called "The Reign of Terror" for it's multitude of politically motivated murders, Paine was becoming despondent over the miserable news that arrived at his cottage daily. By now, most of his friends and associates had fled the country or were in jail, and many had gone to the gallows, perishing along with thousands of innocents for opposing the radical despots that had taken control of the country. Knowing his remaining days might be few, and having watched the new atheist government ban all religion, he was moved to write his most profound book, Age of Reason, which quickly became the most controversial book in history, and it probably still is today, with the exception of Darwin's Origin of the Species.

   In his book, Paine explains why he believes in God, but more importantly, why organized religions are a sham, subverting what can only be a personal matter between each of us and our maker. The day after he finished writing Part-I of this religious masterpiece he was arrested for political sedition against the new French government, then spent the next 10 months in jail.

   Once incarcerated, Paine wrote a series of letters to the American President, George Washington, asking for his assistance to free him, but to his astonishment, Washington ignored every single communiqué. This was partly due to being lied to by William Morris, the American ambassador to France, who was jealous of Paine's fame and was the emissary between them, but also from Washington's fear of losing new trading deals with the English, as Rights of Man was still wreaking havoc on the British political landscape and King George had ordered Paine's execution for sedition. 

   As the weeks in jail turned into months, Paine's detractors eventually had him convicted, without a trial, and arranged orders for him to be sent to the guillotine. It was also at this time that he began to write Age of Reason - Part II. However, when the authorities arrived to take him to the executioner, he was so sick from the squalor of his surroundings that he couldn't even stand, so his sentence was postponed. For the next several months, his would be murderers sat by, hoping Paine would die on his own, but instead he began recovering and so new orders were issued for the gallows. When the executioners came this time, Paine had suffered a relapse so severe that he was slipping in and out of consciousness and expected to die at any moment. Thus his life was spared.

   Finally, James Monroe, the newly appointed American ambassador to France, won his release and he was carried out of prison, quite literally. As the future American President and his family nursed him back to health at their Paris residence, Paine set about to complete Part II of the Age of Reason, not knowing that Part I was slowly on its way to creating a hostile furor in the entire English speaking world! Within a year after publishing Part II, throughout England, but especially in America, clergy of every denomination publicly vilified him, many leading their congregations to burn him in effigy, and all forbid their members to read his work from fear they would lose their authority. Meanwhile, many of his so-called friends stood silent, or worse, joined in the abuse, hoping for political gain. This was heartbreaking for Paine, their behavior all the more shameful since the vast majority of America's founding fathers were Deists rather than Christians.

   Unable to win any arguments with Paine, religious leaders fueled a vicious smear campaign that succeeded in having him shunned by most of society in the years that followed the two publications. Demonizing him with an endless stream of lies and slander, they continued their rabid tirades against his work for decades, long after he died. But his legacy lives on in the many truths he helped illuminate, while his detractors are long since forgotten. Time has eroded the lies the church set in motion about Paine, and anyone who reads the Age of Reason books quickly realizes he was not the atheist the church portrayed. In fact, to the contrary, Paine was as devout a Deist as anyone who ever picked up a pen!

   Age of Reason should be required reading for anyone who would dare proselytize his beliefs on another. It is, in some ways, a more important book than the Bible – for anyone to whom the Bible is important. The same is true for the Koran, the Torah and Talmud, or any other man-made device which dares tell another person “what God says,” or dictates to another person how to interact with God.

   It's a disgrace what happened to Paine at the hands of those he nurtured, but his legacy stands secure. His first books literally helped lay the foundations of nations, but Age of Reason, his last major work, will ultimately help lay the foundation of our world – a world which is coming to reject all religious fanaticism because of the pain and suffering it always causes, sooner or later.

   It is common knowledge that religion and politics are difficult subjects for people to discuss. History records more than a hundred million deaths due to one or the other, or both. But people like Thomas Paine build the bridges that stop such madness. And so it falls to us, the generations that follow him, to keep the memory of so honest and noble a man as Paine alive, indeed to restore his name as the icon of wisdom it was and still should be!

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