Although a believer in God, and many of the same social views most Christians would hold to be ideals, Thomas Paine held a great disdain for Christianity. He thought that Christianity was a negative influence on history, and attacked it mercilessly in many of his writings. In “The Age of Reason”, he denied many of the biblical stories, and denied that God had communicated with humans at all. He said that many, if not all, of the biblical stories were not even true, instead being a collection of fables from many different authors. His views had him cast as an infidel to many, and after “The Age of Reason” many of his followers turned away from him because of how harsh his views were towards religion. He was left then to defend his views to some that he had called friend, or his contemporaries.

Paine says that all national institutions of churches are founded for the explicit out come of enslaving their people, and for the profit and power of those in charge. He viewed Christianity as a barrier for real social reform and moral justice, and throughout his life vehemently defended the separation of church and state.

Paine viewed revelation as a human construction. He states that while he Almighty has the power to be able to communicate with anyone at any time directly, it is foolish to believe that he has just from some second hand accounts of such an event. Revelation, in a religious sense, is the immediate realization of God’s word and instruction. In the revelation texts, we do not even get a first hand account of the prophets revelations, we get a second hand account of a followers conveyance of what the prophets told them. Paine does not view this as revelation anymore, because it is only revelation to the one spoken to by god. We then have to trust the word of some historian or writer from the time period, hoping that their word is good.

To Paine, revelation is a more singular event, that anyone can experience at any time. His revelation comes from simply examining the world around him. God’s word is spoken to him through the awe of the physical world, which he thinks could not exist without God’s power bringing it in to being. He says that “The word of god is the creation we behold.” This is because every man can experience it, it cannot be falsified or changed by another, and it is singular among all. If we behold the world, our understandings of God can be united as we will all see the same phenomena, without need for changing languages or withholdings.