Week 9

One of the biggest reasons for leaving the land you once called home and moving to a New Land was religious freedom. Two of those religions, Deism, and Society of Friends were two of the religions around at this time. Thomas Paine’s writings brought him a great amount of criticism, but mostly passion from the vast amount of people who read his works throughout the years. He was called the voice of the common man, he had the ability communicate the ideas of the American Revolution to the common person as easily as to intellectuals. One of his most famous, some would say most important piece of writing, “Common Sense”, came out in 1776 originally anonymously because of its treasonous content. Printed and sold by Robert Bell, Third Street, Philadelphia, it sold as many as 120,000 copies in the first three months, 500,000 in the first year, going through twenty-five editions in the first year alone Paine donated his royalties from “Common Sense” to George Washington’s Continental Army saying: “As my wish was to serve an oppressed people, and assist in a just and good cause, I conceived that the honor of it would be promoted by my declining to make even the usual profits of an author.”

Thomas Paine wrote the famous The Age of Reason in 1793 which promoted Deism. Deism is the belief that observation and reason in the natural world is enough to justify the existence of God.  Deists do not believe in miracles, the absolute rightness of the Bible and the Holy Trinity. Deism was prominent in the Enlightenment when people wanted the right to think for themselves and interpret the natural world for what is it. Deism holds that God does not intervene with the functioning of the natural world in any way, allowing it to run according to the laws of nature that he configured when he created all things. God is thus conceived to be wholly transcendent and never immanent. Deism does not ascribe any specific qualities to a deity beyond non-intervention. Deism is related to naturalism because it credits the formation of life and the universe to a higher power, using only natural processes. I am no way a religious historian so if I am wrong I apologize , but from the sounds of Deism, it seem a little similar to Judaism, in the way that they don’t believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God, and Deists don’t believe in miracles.

Society of Friends, or Friends is a Protestant Christian tradition originating in mid-17th century England and founded by George Fox. Society of Friends based their message on the idea that Christ has come to teach his people himself: stressing Christ's direct relationship with a universal priesthood of which everyone is a part. Going with this idea, Fox claimed that true believers could engage the risen Lord directly through the Holy Spirit without ministers, priests, or the sacraments. Everyone was capable of God’s love, including woman. Many of the early ministers were women, who travelled both around Britain and overseas to America, preaching. For this time in history, to include woman in religion was a huge step forward in the right direction. Today Society of Friends members are known as Quakers and they came to America in the 1680’s to New England and after being persecuted for their beliefs up there, they settled in Pennsylvania established by William Penn. Today Society of Friends members are also known as Quakers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quakers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Sense_%28pamphlet%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism