This book review was written by Eugene Kernes
“Every national church or religion has established itself by
pretending some special mission from God, communicated to certain
individuals. The Jews have their Moses;
the Christians their Jesus Christ, their apostles and saints; and the Turks
their Mahomet; as if the way to God was not open to every man alike.” – Thomas
Paine, Chapter II – of Missions and Revelations, Page 27
“The invention of a purgatory, and of
the releasing of souls therefrom, by prayers, bought of the church with money;
the selling of pardons, dispensations, and indulgences, are revenue laws,
without bearing that name or carrying that appearance. But the case nevertheless is, that those
things derive their origin from the proxsym of the crucifixion, and the theory
deduced therefrom, which as, that one person could stand in the place of
another, and could perform meritorious services for him. The probability, therefore, is, that the
whole theory or doctrine of what is called the redemption (which is said to
have been accomplished by the act of one person in the room of another) was
originally fabricated on purpose to bring forward and build all those secondary
and pecuniary redemptions upon; and that the passages in the books upon which
the idea of redemption if built, have been manufactured and fabricated for that
purpose.” – Thomas Paine, Chapter VIII – of the New Testament, Page 51
Is This An Overview?
Religion has value, but has been corrupted by
institutions. Religious institutions are
a human invention which creates justifications to persecute those who do not
adhere to their claims, and to monopolize power. Rituals are developed to filter those who
accept the religion from those to be persecuted. Rituals that are meant to be an expression of
power.
Faith is meant to be ubiquitous, but religious institutions
have made faith exclusionary. Certain
groups are favored over others, and have select few individuals within the
favored group who communicate with their deity.
For religious institutions, only the ideas from religious
texts are accepted. Other ideas are
persecuted. Persecuting other ideas
prevents improving the ideas, making society stagnant. Religion prevents correcting limitations of
ideas, which has led to many contradictions within religious texts.
Caveats?
Methods of expressing ideas can be antediluvian, which can
make the book difficult to read. The
focus of the book are the negative consequences of religion, specifically
Christianity. The author reflects on the
contradiction found in the religious claims and their effects on society. The book is not against religion, but against
the institutions of religion. The author
declared oneself to have a faith. Part
of the antagonism for religious institution, is because the author was
persecuted by the Church.
