Your comment showed an ignorance of the disparity of religious beliefs among the Founders, and an ignorance of political significance they placed on those beliefs. If you'd label Paine a "liberal" for his religious beliefs and yourself a "conservative" in a political context, what exactly are you supposed to be trying to "conserve"?
[[Your comment showed an ignorance of the disparity of religious beliefs among the Founders, and an ignorance of political significance they placed on those beliefs.]]
Lol- I’m not theo ne displaying ignorance o n the issue here- you’re statement is blatantly false- and NOONE is sayign that every single foundign father and leader beleived exactly the same as al lthe others- of course there was soem diversity, however, as you wil find out IF you decide to actually display a bit of objectivity, and move beyond the typical erronious liberal talkign points, is that the WAS unanimity between a great many founders and leaders, and that God and lvoe for Him and r4espect for Him and askign for His blessings on htis nation, and turnign to him, was much much more prevelent than you typical ‘downplayers’ make it out to be
and what the heck are you doing goign fro mthe topic of the care Scribes who put God’s word into book form took to our founding fathers? Two seperate issues altogether- My statements and challenge to you stand- look into how seriously the scribes took their job, how dedicated and fearfully reverent they were when writing God’s word, and your ‘mistakes and errors’ argument falls flat on it’s face, and is nothign more than overblowing an irrelevent issue i nregards to how accurate and free from serious and significant error the bible has remained. As well, whenever there is any quesiton about some obscure and minor word, later Translators are careful to include possible menaings based o ncustoms, time periods as well as what they htought the word meant in accordance with hte context of the hwoel word- you’re ‘The bible is too full of error to be reliable’ argument is a false argument based on ignorance o nthe issue
To which Paine do you refer?
The Paine of 1776, who wrote passionately for colonial independence and liberty, and who eloquently buttressed his arguments with Scripture?
The Paine of 1793 whose Age Of Reason was nothing more than a merciless attack on that same Bible he had exalted in Common Sense?
What did Paine hope to conserve? Surely not his reputation, as he discovered when he returned to America from France to the universal condemnation by the same people who he had so inspired twenty years earlier as to be thought one of the prime movers of American Independence. In 1776 it can hardly be thought that Paine represented any great diversity of thought in the Americans. To the contrary he was a quintessential unifying American voice of the Revolution. It was his finest hour, and one he would never repeat.
Today, when we contemplate Common Sense, we admire how wonderfully Paine summed up the American Spirit of ‘76, and we forget how bitterly he subsequently betrayed that same Spirit. But the Americans of the Revolution never forgot, and never forgave.
What happened to bring about such a contrast between 1776 and 1793? In the final analysis, as many of his critics claimed, were Paine’s splendidly inspiring words of ’76 simply the empty rhetoric of a polemicist whose objectives had changed from unseating a tyrannical king to that of unseating corrupt bishops? Sadly, it seems likely the case.