[metmom]

The basic premise of the article, repeated multiple times, is that the root causes is the rejection of the authority of the traditional Church, and adherance to it’s teachings.

Tl's entire point here is to make Paine's rejection a religious issue, that is that he was rejected for being an atheist, not for any other reason.

The simmering resentment against religion and Christianity in particular, is what leads to these kinds of accusations that this is all about a religious litmus test.

It certainly appears that tl would LIKE it to be about rejecting the authority of the traditional Church, although which church that is would be nice to know, because then it would be so easy to hurl slurs and rail against theocracies, bigotry, and intolerance that religion causes, thus providing justification for attacking it.

By couching it in terms of religious persecution, Paine, and other atheists, can then become the modern day martyrs, persecuted for their ideologies, beliefs as it were, by the evil religionists (read Christians).

[tacticalogic]

Tl's entire point here is to make Paine's rejection a religious issue,

By pointing out that Paine was being erroneously portrayed as an atheist. How absolutely insidious of me.

[spirited irish]

snip: It certainly appears that tl would LIKE it to be about rejecting the authority of the traditional Church

Spirited: Essentially, the Gnostic disposition is about rebellion against all authority, norms, standards, and of course, against created being, hence it is present in every age and awaiting opportunity to ‘break out,’ so to speak.

Dostoevsky pointed out that Gnostics are by nature, the most rebellious due to their enormously powerful compulsions of Pride....Pride of Mind, Pride of Eye, Pride of Flesh. In this light, TL’s continuous inversion of truth, his doublespeak, and his obsessiveness with regard to the Church (authority figure) comes into focus.