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.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Reason>
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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>
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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>
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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>
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