The Age of Reason, being an Investigation of True and of Fabulous Theology, 1794
Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
“I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life,” Thomas Paine stated in his introduction to The Age of Reason. He was not, as Theodore Roosevelt famously put it, “a filthy little atheist,” but he made no bones about affirming that “the age of ignorance commenced with the Christian system.” Paine proclaimed, “My own mind is my own church.”
