The Age of Reason is a deistic treatise written by eighteenth-century British radical and American revolutionary Thomas Paine that critiques institutionalized religion and challenges the inerrancy of the Bible. Published in three parts in 1794, 1795, and 1807, it was a bestseller in America, where it caused a short-lived deistic revival. British audiences, however, fearing increased political radicalism as a result of the French revolution, received it with more hostility. The Age of Reason presents common deistic arguments; for example, it highlights what Paine perceives as corruption of the Christian Church and criticizes its efforts to acquire political power. Paine advocates reason in the place of revelation, leading him to reject miracles and to view the Bible as an ordinary piece of literature rather than as a divinely inspired text. The Age of Reason is not atheistic, but deistic: it promotes natural religion and argues for a creator-God. Most of Paine's arguments had long been available to the educated elite, but by presenting them in an engaging and irreverent style, he made deism appealing and accessible to a mass audience. The book was also inexpensive, putting it within the reach of a large number of buyers. Fearing the spread of what they viewed as potentially revolutionary ideas, the British government prosecuted printers and booksellers who tried to publish and distribute it.

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

64:

The Great Fire of Rome started among the shops around the Circus Maximus, eventually destroying four of fourteen Roman districts and severely damaging seven others. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_Rome

1863:

American Civil War: Led by Union Army Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first formal African American military unit, spearheaded an assault on Fort Wagner near Charleston, South Carolina . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/54th_Massachusetts_Volunteer_Infantry

1969:

After a party on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts, United States Senator Ted Kennedy drove his car off a wooden bridge into a tidal channel, killing his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne, a former campaign worker. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chappaquiddick_incident

1982:

Guatemalan military forces and their paramilitary allies slaughtered over 250 Mayans in the village of Plan de Sánchez, Baja Verapaz. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_de_S%C3%A1nchez_massacre

1989:

American actress Rebecca Schaeffer was shot and killed by stalker Robert John Bardo, eventually prompting the passage of anti-stalking laws in California. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Schaeffer

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

unbosom (v): 1. To tell someone about one's troubles, and thus obtain relief.

2. To confess a misdeed http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/unbosom

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

When I die, my money's not gonna come with me. My movies will live on for people to judge what I was as a person. I just want to stay curious. --Heath Ledger http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Heath_Ledger