That's because Paine was brought into the discussion.
He went from siding against the English "chrisian" despots to siding with the French atheist despots.
who has a quite different opinion from yours on what the author would do
On the contrary. I never claimed to have an opinion on what the author might do, having mentioned several times I don't know her.
He sided with the revolutionaries. How do you become a "despot" while under some else's rule?
He wrote The Rights of Man in 1792, in support of the revolution and against the hereditary monarchies. He felt the system of hereditary monarchy wrong, because it stood contrary to the idea that all men were equal before God. This does not sound like the works of an atheist
On the contrary. I never claimed to have an opinion on what the author might do, having mentioned several times I don't know her.
Then I have misunderstood your last few posts.
I've read some of Paine's works that were very critical of Biblical literalism and "reveled religion", but have not seen anything written by him that denies the existence of God, and in fact much that affirms it. I have seen many of his quotes lifted out of context and used by atheists but nothing from Paine himself that would support the conclusion that he was an atheist.