Critique of Organized Religion

Where it surfaces

• The Age of Reason

  Paine denounces all established churches as human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, monopolizing power and profit.

• The Author's Profession of Faith

  Paine denounces all national churches as human inventions to terrify, enslave, and monopolize power and profit, and condemns the 'adulterous connection of church and state.'

• II: Of Missions and Revelations

  Paine attacks national churches for claiming special missions and for adapting pagan mythology to maintain power and revenue.

• III: Concerning the Character of Jesus Christ, and His History

  Paine attacks the priesthood and the fraudulent origins of Christian narratives, accusing them of imposing belief without proof.

• Of the Bases of Christianity

  Paine attacks the Christian Church as mythologists who fabricate absurd stories, equating their narratives with pagan mythology.

• V: Examination in Detail of the Preceding Bases

  Paine attacks the Christian story of Satan and redemption as absurd and derogatory to God.

• VI: Of the True Theology

  Paine criticizes the Christian church for promoting a gloomy, sacrificial theology that he sees as an insult to the Creator, and he notes the growing suspicion that church doctrine is fabulous.

• VIII: Of the New Testament

  Paine attacks the church's fabrication of doctrines like redemption and purgatory for financial gain.

• IX: In What the True Revelation Consists

  Paine criticizes the idea that Jesus Christ could have communicated a universal message given linguistic diversity and the absence of printing.

• XI: Of the Theology of the Christians; and the True Theology

  Paine condemns the Christian system as a fraud that abandons true theology for superstition.

• XII: The Effects of Christianism on Education; Proposed Reforms

  Paine condemns the Christian system for deliberately restricting education to dead languages to prevent science from challenging its mythology.

• XIII: Comparison of Christianism with the Religious Ideas Inspired by Nature

  Paine criticizes the Christian story of redemption as shocking to a child and argues that any system of religion that shocks a child cannot be true.

• XVI: Application of the Preceding to the System of the Christians

  Paine argues that Christianity originated as a pious fraud and was maintained by institutional interests.

• XVII: Of the Means Employed in All Time, and Almost Universally, to Deceive the Peoples

  Paine argues that mystery, miracle, and prophecy are tools used by organized religions to impose upon and deceive people.

• Recapitulation

  Paine criticizes the concept of a written word of God as inconsistent and subject to error, and advocates for getting rid of 'redundancies' in religion.

• I: The Old Testament

  Paine attacks priests and commentators for imposing their own interpretations on the Bible and for using it to justify atrocities.

• II: The New Testament

  Paine accuses the church of suppressing investigation and using forgery to maintain power, especially in the context of the French Revolution.

• III: Conclusion

  Paine condemns revealed religion as the source of 'the most detestable wickedness' and 'horrid cruelties,' including religious wars and persecutions.

• To the Ministers and Preachers of All Denominations of Religion

  Paine attacks preachers and their doctrines (salvation by faith, predestination) as demoralizing and hypocritical.

• An Essay on Dreams

  Paine attacks priestcraft and the church for promoting absurd dream-based doctrines and for suppressing free thought.

• An Examination of the Passages in the New Testament

  He exposes the New Testament as an invention of the Christian church, not divine truth.

• The Book of John

  Paine excoriates priests and church authorities for stifling inquiry, fabricating prophecies, and perpetuating a system of falsehood for their own benefit.

• Contradictory Doctrines Between Matthew and Mark

  Paine accuses priests of ignoring Matthew 25 because it does not serve their financial interests.

• Private Thoughts of a Future State

  Paine dismisses the New Testament account of judgment as absurd and fabulous, rejecting its binary moral division.