"The Bible: a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalise mankind."
-- Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason (1793-5), quoted from Jonathon Green, The Cassell Dictionary of Cynical Quotations
Paine's point was that it was defamatory to a loving God for men to claim that they murdered innocent men, women and infants at His bequest.
The bottom line is that Paine did believe in God, just not the God of The Bible.