Compare And Contrast Ben Franklin And Thomas Paine

Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine both were visionaries in their day, understanding that the world around us was more than just dirt and rock but that there was a divine infinite universe in front of us to explore and all you had to do was look up. While both of these men could be found laying the bricks for the age of enlightenment in the colonies and paving the way for a new country, free of British rule, they were also vastly different in individual temperament. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine alike observed the world through a scientific lens, although they both had contrasting views on issues such as religion, government and if the colonies should separate from Britain. While both Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine could agree on many cutting edge theories concerning the vastness of the universe they were both very different in religious views. Franklin, born in Boston, Massachusetts, was brought up in a Puritan household practicing the Episcopalian form of Christianity. Franklin best spoke of his religious beliefs in a letter to Ezra Stiles, president of Yale University, in March of 1790,
I believe in one God, creator of the universe. …show more content…
Franklin was a proponent of the public choosing their government by voting for representatives in each of their home states. He saw the one-sided English government as unreasonable and set to keep the American way of life fair with equal representation. Thomas Paine was equally enthusiastic about organizing all of the colonies and breaking free from the tyrannical English government. However, Paine was not as eager as Franklin to setting up local government. In Paine’s pamphlet “Common Sense” he asserts that government is a necessary evil that only keeps the public constrained from their