The Age of Reason
Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology
by Thomas Paine · first published 1794
43% recommend57% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Argues against organized religion and miracles from a deist standpoint, and is valued for its plain, forceful prose; readers find it persuasive and fun to read aloud.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Thomas Paine who was a dynamic philosophical presence in the American Revolution of 1776 wrote his last book in 1795 on an investigation and commentary of organized religion with a focus on Christianity. Paine said that his "religious duties" included doing justice, loving benevolence, and attempting to make others happy. He called himself a deist which is a person who believes in the existence of a God based on the evidence of reason and nature but not on supernatural revelation. In this book he outlines deism as a rational religious belief and offers an analysis of the Bible based on textual
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So far: Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone The Age of Reason - Thomas Paine The first ignited my love for reading the the second changed how I look at life.
on “Books That Changed My Life” ↗The book "The Age of Reason" by Thomas Paine really convinced me that something like a personal God doesn't exist. I've been raised a Christian, so changing the Christian mindset was not easy for me, it took a course of several…
on “Ask HN: What is the most influential not-technology book(s) you have ever read?” ↗…speeches of Robert G. Ingersoll. Great oratory from an age when oratory was prized. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_G._Ingersoll http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/2662 Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason. Not intended as oratory, but like Ingersoll's lectures, great fun to read aloud. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine http://thomaspaine.org/major-works/the-age-of-reason-part-1.... > But some,…
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books or essays written at least 100 years ago?” ↗On the Sensations of Tone by Hermann von Helmholtz The Road by Jack London all of the Oz books by L. Frank Baum The Scottish Students' Song Book Heart Songs The Age of Reason The Art of Money Getting by Barnum
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books or essays written at least 100 years ago?” ↗…Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, all of whom were clearly agnostic (at the time, they were "Deist" which was essentially equivalent to "agnostic" nowadays). Thomas Paine's phenomenal book "The Age of Reason" was utterly mind-blowing and extremely radical at the time, receiving widespread banning and igniting firestorms in the culture. It's still a great read today! Especially fascinating when you consider…
on “Bletchley code breaker Betty Webb dies aged 101” ↗The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine.
on “Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?” ↗…herein the difference is of bad books, that they to a discreet and judicious Reader serve in many respects to discover, to confute, to forewarn, and to illustrate. Thomas Paine's introduction to The Age of Reason[2]: > You will do me the justice to remember, that I have always strenuously supported the Right of every Man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine. He who denies to another…
on “Spotify signs ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ to an exclusive multi-year deal” ↗…mathematician, but it was Thomas Paine's view that the hand of the divine can be seen by the study of nature - which I believe was a view shared by Isaac Newton. Thomas Paine wrote on his point of view in "The Age of Reason" [0]: > Each of those churches show certain books, which they call revelation, or the word of God. The Jews say, that their word of God was given by God to Moses, face to face; the Christians say, that their…
on “Ramanujan Surprises Again (2015)” ↗…of great men and women who don't get the recognition they deserve. For example, Thomas Paine, a man who played a significant part in America's decision to declare independence. When he published "The Age of Reason" after the war, America responded by pretending he never existed for a couple hundred years.
on “Beware the Alan Turing fetish” ↗Age Of Reason by Thomas Paine A Tour of C++ by Bjarne Stroustrup Effective C++ by Scott Meyers Moon Walking With Einstein by Joshua Foer
on “Ask HN: What is HN reading?” ↗…right, wealth, purity, and other obviously unjust ways to define and manage power. This nation was formed on the idea of rejecting all of that. Thomas Paine derives most of this in "Rights of Man" and "Age of reason", where the first reference speaks to self governance and what free people means, and the second speaks to why the church is not a center of power either, both straight up rejections of both forms of…
on “I was Zuckerberg’s speechwriter” ↗…presidents, was known as the village atheist when he was a young man, studied Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, which put much of the blame on Christianity, and Paine's The Age of Reason. He carried Euclid's Elements with him until he could derive any of the propositions in the first six books at will. It is only by the power of the ideas that Euclid's Elements (written in Alexandria)…
on “I’m taking some time away from Comma” ↗Thomas Paine, US founding father and deist, believed God's Word is the universe he created. From "The Age of Reason": It is only in the CREATION that all our ideas and conceptions of a word of God can unite. The Creation speaketh a universal language, independently of human speech or human language, multiplied and…
on “Translating the Bible is a vexed task” ↗…bad books, that they to a discreet and judicious Reader serve in many respects to discover, to confute, to forewarn, and to illustrate. Thomas Paine said something similar in his introduction to The Age of Reason[2]: > You will do me the justice to remember, that I have always strenuously supported the Right of every Man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine. He who denies to another…
on “Rowan Atkinson on free speech (2023)” ↗…and prostituted the chastity of his mind, as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime.” ― Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason
on “AI Mania Is Eviscerating Global Decision-Making” ↗