Tom Paine: Belief In Religion

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Michael Lobato Prof. Bristol English 122/ CR #1 20 August 2008 Belief in Religion One way to go about religion is to believe in what your parents believe in. The other way is to believe in what you think is right. Just like Tom Paine talks about in this brief passage “What I Believe.” I think the purpose for writing the story was not only to pass time while in a prison cell, but it was to influence his fellow citizens to think for themselves. “I intend it to be the last offering I should make to my fellow citizens of all nations, and that at a time when purity if the motive that induced me to it could not admit of a question, even by those who might disapprove of the work”(99). I imagine what Pane is trying to say is that…show more content…
From in a cell, he jots down almost rebel like ideas, which is to be free from having a religion forced upon any single being. In this initial strategy of steering the emotions of the readers, Pane tells the readers “I believe in one God, and no more” (100), he exposes his stance but does not overly enforce his beliefs so the readers will not be subjected to them. I think that this is very important because if Pane did over insert his views then he would be going against his own teachings. Pane then goes on to talk about a few religions, discussing the problems he finds with them. I found this to be his main strategy of grabbing the reader’s attention and expressing his purpose to them. He talks about Jewish, Christian, and Turkish religions finding the questionable views of each one. “The Jews say that there word of God was given by God to Moses face to face; the Christians say their word of God came by divine inspiration; and the Turks sat that their word of God was brought by an angle from haven”(101). He then tells the readers what he thinks about each religion “…I disbelieve them all” (101). By expressing this it makes a more persuasive argument to the readers simply because he is exploiting the oblivious. Moving to his techniques to the central purpose Pane makes a bold stance in this short
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