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The Age of Reason represents the results of years of study and reflection by Thomas Paine on the place of religion in society. Paine wrote: "Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst; every other species of tyranny is limited to the world we live in; but this attempts to stride beyond the grave, and seeks to pursue us into eternity." The cool rationale of Paine's The Age of Reason influenced religious thinking throughout the world; and its pervasive influence continues to the present day.
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'The Age of Reason,' ably narrated by Robin Field, represents Thomas Paine's takedown of the Bible and promotion of Deism.
Which is fine, I guess, but all it really represents is his takedown of a particular interpretation of the Bible. He spends a lot of time, for example, raging about the fact that the Mosaic books couldn't have been written by Moses. This, of course, completely misses the point that the Mosaic books are about early Jewish tradition that culminates in the story of Moses. There's a lot of this sort of thing in the book, and I found myself exclaiming, "Lighten up, Tom. You're all tangled up in the factual inconsistencies of a collection of books that were never intended to be factually consistent."
Still, one cannot deny Paine's passion and Field's narrative skill. I found this audiobook to be thought provoking and entertaining, and I recommend it to readers interested in Enlightenment thought, the Founding Generation, religion in general, and Deism in particular.
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