“THE WORD OF GOD IS THE CREATION WE BEHOLD: And it is this word, which no human invention can counterfeit or alter, that God speaketh universally to man.”
Do Thomas Paine’s decidedly Deist leanings speak to our moral obligation to protect and preserve the environment?
Paine gets one thing wrong:
Imagine his shock, two hundred years later, if [...]
Monthly Archives: August 2006
On Environmentalism
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
On an Effective Legislature
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
“To preserve the benefits of what is called civilized life, and to remedy at the same time the evils it has produced, ought to be considered as one of the first objects of informed legislation.”
The opening words from Agrarian Justice, which Paine wrote in the winter of 1795/96 and published in 1797. Through both the [...]
On the Dangers of Religious Fundamentalism
Monday, August 14, 2006
“Every national church or religion has established itself by pretending some special mission from God communicated to certain individuals. The Jews have their Moses; the Christians their Jesus Christ, their apostles and saints; and the Turks their Mahomet; as if the way to God was not open to every man alike”
Thomas Paine alienated many from [...]
On Principals of Foreign Policy
Friday, August 11, 2006
“Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.”
Do “the terrorists win” when we are quick to violence and abandoning the values that Thomas Paine and the founding fathers set forth at the birth of a new nation?
thomas paine foreign policy current events principals of a [...]
Courage and Optimism in The Crisis
Friday, August 11, 2006
“I thank God that I fear not. I see no real cause for fear. I know our situation well, and can see the way out of it.”
Thomas Paine speaks of the crisis of his day.
Another mass terror attack narrowly averted; it’s the kind of day begging for Paine’s courageous optimism.
thomas paine terrorist attacks [...]
On the Virtue of Gunboat Diplomacy
Wednesday, August 9, 2006
“An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.”
Is it ultimately better to influence and lead by an example of principals than by a show of force?
thomas paine diplomacy gunboat diplomacy current events foreign policy preemptive war
On the Death Penalty and a Civil Government
Tuesday, August 8, 2006
“Civil Government does not consist of executions; but in making that provision for the instruction of youth and the support of age, as to exclude, as much as possible, profligacy from the one and despair from the other.”
From Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man.
Does a just and beneficent government use the death penalty? Should a primary [...]
On Suffering Fools
Monday, August 7, 2006
“To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists of holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture.”
When dealing with a closed mind, save your breath.
Thomas Paine was, to many, a pain not by name [...]
Liberty Requires Personal Diligence – Lest it Be Lost
Friday, August 4, 2006
“When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.”
Are we in danger, in our comfortable homes full of endless conveniences and mindless babble coming at us from all corners, of losing the ability of thinking for ourselves?
If so, what do we stand to lose if not freedom and [...]
Go Home, Go Home…
Friday, August 4, 2006
“Go home sir, and endeavor to save the remains of your ruined country by a just representation of the madness of her measures. A few moments well applied may yet preserve her from political destruction.”
When Paine wrote these words his reference was to England. If he wrote these words today would it be Lebanon; [...]