Thomas Paine
The rights of man come from his birth, not from a king, and every generation has the same rights as the one before.
Life
Thomas Paine (1737-1809), born in England, was a writer and pamphleteer who moved to America in 1774. His pamphlet Common Sense (1776) pushed for American independence, and he later took part in the French Revolution. In Rights of Man he argues that everyone is born with equal rights; in The Age of Reason he defends a deism that judges every revealed religion by reason.
Main works
He argues for the independence of the American colonies and against hereditary monarchy.
Answering Burke, he holds that rights come from birth and that no generation can bind the next.
He believes in one God but rejects churches and revealed scriptures.
In his own words
« Every generation is equal in rights to generations which preceded it, by the same rule that every individual is born equal in rights with his contemporary. »
« I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life. »
« My own mind is my own church. »
Positions
click a row to see the evidenceA deist: he believes in one God shown in creation, but rejects every revealed religion and church.
Paine, The Age of Reason (1794)
"My own mind is my own church": he judges every doctrine, scripture included, by reason.
Paine, The Age of Reason (1794)
He believes ordinary people, freed from tyranny and superstition, can govern themselves and improve.
Paine, Rights of Man (1791)