A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
Thomas PaineRead
The story of the redemption will not stand examination. That man should redeem himself from the sin of eating an apple by committing a murder on Jesus Christ, is the strangest system of religion ever set up.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Paine critiques the paradox of redemption in religion, questioning the justification of great sins for small transgressions.
In this quote, Thomas Paine challenges the logic behind the Christian concept of redemption, which suggests that humanity can absolve the sin of disobedience epitomized by Adam's consumption of the forbidden apple through an act as severe as the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. He finds it absurd that such a violent act could be seen as a means of redeeming a relatively minor sin, highlighting the contradictions within religious doctrines and prompting reflection on the nature of justice and morality.
Themes
RedemptionSinReligionParadoxMorality
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a debate about the inconsistencies in religious teachings.
More from Thomas Paine
All quotes →That God cannot lie, is no advantage to your argument, because it is no proof that priests can not, or that the Bible does not.
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I consider the war of America against Britain as the country's war, the public's war, or the war of the people in their own behalf, for the security of their natural rights, and the protection of their own property.
Thomas PaineRead
Had the news of salvation by Jesus Christ been inscribed on the face of the sun and the moon, in characters that all nations would have understood, the whole earth had known it in twenty-four hours, and all nations would have believed it; whereas, though it is now almost two thousand years since, as they tell us, Christ came upon earth, not a twentieth part of the people of the earth know anything of it, and among those who do, the wiser part do not believe it.
Thomas PaineRead
The end of all political associations is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man; and these rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance of oppression.
Thomas PaineRead
To reason with goverments, as they have existed for ages, is to argue with brutes. It is only from the nations themselves that reforms can be expected
Thomas PaineRead
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