Thursday, October 25, 2012

Thomas Paine Redux

"All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit."
- Thomas Paine

 File:Fashion-before-Ease-Gillray.jpeg


Hmmmmmm...Where has this enlightenment thinking been put into policy.


Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
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2 comments:

  1. rockinajarOctober 25, 2012 at 10:09 PM

    It may have been put into the constitution, yet it still pollutes the human mind...

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  2. UnknownOctober 26, 2012 at 6:30 AM

    @Rockinajar

    It may, but I don't think that Paine's criticism in this quote was directed at religion in general a la Marx's "opiate of the masses," but given the context of the times it seems to me a condemnation of state sponsored religion. Now the real question is were the framers of the US Gov. trying to eliminate competition in the terrifying and enslaving mankind and monopolizing power and profit department or did they believe that government was the way to work at eliminating those problems AND if so did they not anticipate the power of corporate bodies to do the same?

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