In the eighteenth century, whenever the thought of freedom of speech aroused, one common name appeared, Thomas Paine. He supported the cause so much, that he wrote several pieces about why it is important, but his last piece proved his belief. During this time religion was an important topic and while he was being held in a prison in France, he wrote What I Believe. It focused on his religious beliefs, the belief in a God, but not a church. Thomas Paine says that he does believe in a God. But what seems to irritate him is how the church perceives God. He says, “My own mind is my church…it is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself.” The church follows the rules of a book. A book that was somehow sent to man
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“It is curious to observe how the theory of what is called the Christian church sprung out of the tail of the heathen mythology.” He explains how the end of the story of Christ had to be so unbelievably true to match the first half. He states how the myths of Greek and Roman gods come down to earth to impregnate a woman is similar to the begin story of Christ. God came down to Mary and then she was with child. A very simple comparison of a story that was written by followers, a story meant to draw in crowds. Then to make the end a miraculous as the beginning, the writer’s brought Christ back to life. He does say, however, that even though the stories are a little over the top, he believes that Jesus Christ existed. He even says that he is greater than every philosopher that has ever lived because of his virtue and being an amiable man. So we see here that even though his does not believe in the story, he believes in a man because he was able to draw a crowd because he spoke what he believed. This is why I think Thomas even considers the existence of Jesus, because he used freedom of speech to convince thousands of people that he was the son of God, and that he was there to save them all. So in just a few short pages, we have learned a lot about the literary figure Thomas Paine. He believed in two simple rules; equality and freedom of speech. He is a man of many words, and most of them were heard by someone. It was important for him to
“It is curious to observe how the theory of what is called the Christian church sprung out of the tail of the heathen mythology.” He explains how the end of the story of Christ had to be so unbelievably true to match the first half. He states how the myths of Greek and Roman gods come down to earth to impregnate a woman is similar to the begin story of Christ. God came down to Mary and then she was with child. A very simple comparison of a story that was written by followers, a story meant to draw in crowds. Then to make the end a miraculous as the beginning, the writer’s brought Christ back to life. He does say, however, that even though the stories are a little over the top, he believes that Jesus Christ existed. He even says that he is greater than every philosopher that has ever lived because of his virtue and being an amiable man. So we see here that even though his does not believe in the story, he believes in a man because he was able to draw a crowd because he spoke what he believed. This is why I think Thomas even considers the existence of Jesus, because he used freedom of speech to convince thousands of people that he was the son of God, and that he was there to save them all. So in just a few short pages, we have learned a lot about the literary figure Thomas Paine. He believed in two simple rules; equality and freedom of speech. He is a man of many words, and most of them were heard by someone. It was important for him to