Ethan Allen Analysis

When one hears the name “Ethan Allen”, several images may come to mind. Perhaps the most common, although a little disappointing, is of course the furniture company. Ask a Vermonter, or a scholar of American history, and they might respond with “forts, patriots, green mountain boys” - all allusions to this man’s illustrious past. A past wrought with gunpowder and bloodshed, and a lifetime spent questioning just about every semblance of authority that Allen encountered. Perhaps what is most remarkable about Allen is his surge into the Vermont mythos - he became a legend. It is no question why so many look up to this man, he frequently took on ridiculous endeavors, and never shied from danger. However, what few may know about Allen is that …show more content…
The fact that each religion claims to be right, and all the others to be heretics or heathens, exposes one of the great hypocrisies in human nature. In Chapter 8, Allen tackles this question with impunity - wielding reason as only a Deist could. He claims that in each and every human being, there is a deep, natural understand of God and how to reach God, which is through reason and the discovery of truth and understanding - that nothing gives humans more joy than knowledge. Humans possess an ability, as Allen puts it, to “perceive and despise [superstition] in others”, despite being blind to the superstition in their own lives. He elaborates further, “Protestants can readily expose the weak side of Popery, and Papists are acute in discovering the errors of heretics. Christians and Muslims spy out each others inconsistencies. The Christians call the Muslims infidels, and the Muslims cannot call Christians by a worse name than that which they have given themselves, Christians” (Allen, it should be noted that in his book, Allen refers to Muslims as Mahometans, which denotes them as followers of Mohammed, as Christian denotes a follower of Christ. Although sometimes still used stylistically, the term offends some Muslims as it suggests they worship a being other than God, like the Christians. Although not an inaccurate phrase, few are familiar with the term Mahometan today, so it was replaced with Muslim). Allen observes that practically every world religion on the planet claims to be the sole source of truth on Earth - and everyone in their corner of the world is really good at exposing the lies of the other corner of the world. Allen asks humanity to dismiss bigotry, and take the same zealous analysis of other religions and apply it to their own, and thus “not rest until we have regulated