Thomas Paine was born in England in the year 1736. He was a political revolutionary who had a different perspective towards religion. This different view may have come up as a result of being brought up by parent who believed in different religious traditions. His father was a Quaker while his mother was an Anglican Church follower. The exposure of the two religions in Paine’s life as he grew up made significant effects on his view about religion. As a result, he later became a deist and he wrote a lot of books on his religious beliefs. In his work, he greatly criticized Christianity and other religions. However, he promoted deism. His main problem with religion was the beliefs that the most Christians have on miracles and other occurrences in religion that people believe in, and they are not natural. Some beliefs that he differed with mostly will be discussed in this paper.
In accordance with one of his books, Paine believed in one God and not in other things that Christians and people in other religions believe in about God. Unlike Christians, he disagreed with people who believed in revelations and supernatural manifestations associated with religion. Despite the fact that he believed that God exists, just like other people who believe in religion, his reason for this belief differed from that of individuals who believe in religion. In Christianity for example, most Christian’s beliefs in God’s existence because of the readings they read in the bible and the activities that the bibles says took place. Performance of miracles by God through his people is a proof that God exists according to Christians. For instance, by Jesus dying and resurrecting in three days makes many Christians strongly believe that God exist. On the other hand, Paine also believed that God exists but not because of the non-natural things that different religions explains that happened. His believe came as a result of his observation towards nature. He also had a hope for happiness beyond the life that he was living.
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Many churches such as the Jewish church, the Greek Church, Roman church, protestant church, Turkish church among other churches believes in a creed that they profess according to their faith. The creed reminds the Christians about the teachings on matters relating to God and the Trinity. It also strengthens their faith. Paine did not believe in any of the creeds professed by any religion. Instead, he used to follow his mind and believed that his mind is his Church. His reasons for this believe was because he argued that all Churches were inventions by human beings set to enslave mankind and terrify them. He also believed that Churches were set in place to monopolize power and makes profit. Due to this reason, he did not believe in any church or religion.
The bible did not contain the word of God according to Thomas. In his argument, if it contained the word of God it could be having examinations in some of its part. He therefore argued that those who believed in it knew the least about it. In accordance to Christian’s traditional thinking, bible is a Holy book that was written by men inspired by God. It tells them the good news about God and his ways. They follow the bible’s teachings since they believe those are the ways that God wants them to follow. Unlike Thomas, Christians believes that the person who believes and follows the Bible’s teachings, knows it better. Christians believes that the Bible teaches the right path of life while in contradiction, Thomas beliefs that man has learnt murder, cruelty and rapine from the Bible.
However, Paine had a strong respect for those who believed in religion and did not condemn them. He believed that it was their right to believe in a religion of their choice as it was his right to believe in deism. In addition to this, he advised the religion believers to be mentally faithful. That would give them happiness according to him. He believed that it was not possible for people to calculate their mischief, and therefore Christians should stop lying to themselves mentally. His view on Christianity made many people, even those who respected him, see him as an outcast. This resulted in only six people paying their respect in his funeral when he died in the year 1809 (Austin 2017).
In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet, who Deceased August, 1665, Being a Year and a Half Old
The first poem, “In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet, who Deceased August, 1665, Being a Year and a Half Old”, a lot of information is shared. The title shows how close the families were during that time. This is because the poem is talking of a person who is mourning the death of a young grandchild. This shows care and unity among families. The second stanza of the poem talks about trees rotting at an old age, and young buds dying. This is used as a metaphor to compare the existence of human to plant’s life. The role of God in the people is also expressed in people’s lives. By use of line, “Is by His hand alone that guides nature and fate”, it’s a clear indication that the people in this community believe that it is God who controls their lives.
The poem has a uniform rhyme scheme of A-B-A-B-C-C-C. This shows how serious the poem structures were in 1600’s. The poem is written in iambic pentameter and it’s a sonnet. Repetition of the word farewell and the word babe, and alliteration in the 5 th line shows how the artistic devices were used. Use of these elements gives a picture of how the poem was stylized.
In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Anne Bradstreet, Who Deceased June 20, 1669, Being Three Years and Seven Months Old
In the second poem, “In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Anne Bradstreet, Who Deceased June 20, 1669, Being Three Years and Seven Months Old," the poet is talking about a deceased young child. The poem starts with the poet expressing her feelings, “with troubled heart and trembling hand I write.” It shows how heartbroken she is when writing this poem. The poem continues to express the feelings of the poet. At some point, she feels disappointed and she has lost hope. However, she says that the experience that she went through made her be wiser and changed her perspective on how she viewed things. She learnt to value things with the price they deserve. The use of the word savior in the last line shows that people in that community recognizes God’s presence.
There is a rhyme scheme in the poem of A-B-B-B-A-A-A-A-C-C-D-D-E-E-F-F. This is a clear indication that the structure of a poem were taken seriously. There was also use of Metaphor in the poem. For instance, the line, “I knew she was but as a withering flower,” was used to show the life of the young child faded and finally died. In this case, the life is compare to how the flower withers before it dies. The use of rhyming words gives the work an image of a poem.
On My Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet, Who Died on 16 November, 1669, Being but a Month, and One Day Old
Lastly, the poem, “On My Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet, Who Died on 16 November, 1669, Being but a Month, and One Day Old," the poem is talking of a death of a one month kid. This death made the poet to weep. This was the third child to die. He was the youngest and therefore the poet say that the other two died before they were “blown” and the last one was still in the “bud” when he died. This is used to show the tender age he was in when he died. As the poem goes on, the poet tells the readers that he is good. He brings in the Gods aspect and believes that it was His will and no one should dispute it. He says that God is just and merciful, hence showing hope. He says that there is a chance for him to smile again.
There is a rhyme scheme of A-A-B-B-C-C-E-E in the poem. This help in ensuring that the structure used was in accordance with the requirements needed when writing a poem. The use of metaphor is well shown by the use of flowers to refer to the young children. There is use of rhyming words in the poem hence giving t some uniformity. It is a sonnet and there is use of iambic pentameter.
Contrast and similarities
The three poems are similar in that they are all taking of death. In addition, all the deceased are young children. In the three poems, the poet recognizes God hence making them to be similar. The use of metaphor in the three poems makes the look alike. There is expression of mourning in all poems. Although the poems talk of death of the three young children, they died at different times. There were of different ages when they died hence making them the poems to be different from each other. .
Reference
Austin cline (2017) Thomas Paine on religion What this founding father had to say about religion.
