Thesis: Through a deist outlook, Paine denounced Crhistian mysteries, miracles, and prophecies as superstition and called for a natural religion that accorded with reason and science.
- believes in one God; in equality of man; that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creature happy
- does not believe in the creed professed by Jewish church, by Roman church, by Greek church, by Protestant church, nor by any church --> "My mind is my own church"
- He's heard stories but without visual or concrete evidence, he won't rest his belief on these
- - Moses told the children of Israel that he recieved two table of commandments, but they were not obliged to believe him because they had no other authority for it thanhis telling them = Therefore Paine he no other authority for it than some historian telling him
- - Told that Virgin Mary had a child without any cohabitation with a man, and that her betrothed husband, Joseph, said that an engel told him = this circumstance require more evidence than their bare word; but also it is only reported by others that they said so - hearsay upon hearsay so Pain decides not to choose to rest his belief on such evidence
- - Resurrection of Christ was an event believed by everyone but it requires proof and evidence, which was never given = Jesus' disciples portrayed it as it was but Thomas, one of the disciples, did not belive the resurrection, and would not belive without having ocular and manual demonstration; similarly, Paine believes that he also needs substantial proof
- "The stroy has every mark of fraud and imposition stamped upon the face of it"
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