When also I am told that a woman, called the Virgin Mary, said, or gave out, that she was with child without any cohabitation with a man, and that her betrothed husband, Joseph, said that an angel told him so, I have a right to believe them or not: such a circumstance required a much stronger evidence than their bare word for it: but we have not even this; for neither Joseph nor Mary wrote any such matter themselves. It is only reported by others that they said so. It is hearsay upon hearsay, and I do not chose to rest my belief upon such evidence.
Thomas Paine
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More Thomas Paine
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THOMAS PAINE Those who expect to reap the blessings of liberty must undergo the fatigues of supporting it THOMAS PAINE Let them call me rebel, and welcome; I feel no concern from it. For I should suffer the misery of de... THOMAS PAINE If we do not hang together, we shall surely hang separately. THOMAS PAINE The American constitutions were to liberty, what a grammar is to language: they define its parts of ... THOMAS PAINE Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst THOMAS PAINE He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he viol... THOMAS PAINE These are times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this cris... THOMAS PAINE Calvinism is the belief (1) That there are three Gods (2) That good works, or the love of our neighb... THOMAS PAINE It is an affront to treat falsehood with complaisance THOMAS PAINE One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests THOMAS PAINE The story of the whale swallowing Jonah, though a whale is large enough to do it, borders greatly on... THOMAS PAINE I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by ... THOMAS PAINE Later times have laid all the blame upon the Goths and Vandals, but, however unwilling the partizans... THOMAS PAINE All the tales of miracles, with which the Old and New Testament are filled, are fit only for imposto... THOMAS PAINE The Christian theory is little else than the idolatry of the ancient mythologists, accommodated to t... THOMAS PAINE Now, if the writers of these four books [Gospels] had gone into a court of justice to prove an alibi... THOMAS PAINE With respect to the books of the New Testament, particularly such parts as tell us of the resurrecti... THOMAS PAINE The first chapter of Matthew begins with giving a genealogy of Jesus Christ; and in the third chapte... THOMAS PAINE It is not then the existence or the non-existence, of the persons that I trouble myself about; it is... THOMAS PAINE In stating these matters, I speak an open and disinterested language, dictated by no passion but tha... THOMAS PAINE That there are men in all countries who get their living by war, and by keeping up the quarrels of n... THOMAS PAINE Be this as it may, they decided by vote which of the books out of the collection they had made, shou... THOMAS PAINE People in general know not what wickedness there is in this pretended word of God. Brought up in ... THOMAS PAINE He prays dictatorially. When it is sunshine, he prays for rain, and when it is rain, he prays f... THOMAS PAINE As to the ancient historians, from THOMAS PAINE It is difficult beyond description to conceive that space can have no end; but it is more difficult ... THOMAS PAINE The Almighty Lecturer, by displaying the principles of science in the structure of the universe, has... THOMAS PAINE Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe w... THOMAS PAINE It was needless, after this, to say that all was vanity and vexation of spirit; for it is impossible... THOMAS PAINE But the resurrection of a dead person from the grave, and his ascension through the air, is a thing ... THOMAS PAINE The study of theology, as it stands in Christian churches, is the study of nothing; it is founded on... THOMAS PAINE