"It [Christianity] has put the whole orbit of reason into shade."

— Paine, Thomas (1737-1809)


Place of Publication
Paris Printed by Barrois, London: Sold by D. I. Eaton
Publisher
Barrois
Date
1794
Metaphor
"It [Christianity] has put the whole orbit of reason into shade."
Metaphor in Context
As to the Christian system of faith, it appears to me as a species of Atheism; a sort of religious denial of God. It professes to believe in a man rather than in God. It is a compound made up chiefly of Manism with but little Deism, and is as near to Atheism as twilight is to darkness. It introduces between man and his Maker an opaque body, which it calls a Redeemer, as the moon introduces her opaque self between the earth and the sun, and it produces by this means a religious or an irreligious eclipse of light. It has put the whole orbit of reason into shade.
(p. 424)
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason; Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology. (Paris: Printed by Barrois, London: Sold by D. I. Eaton, 1794). <Link to Liberty Fund's Online Library of Liberty>
Date of Entry
05/19/2011

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.