The Age of Reason
Though these larger philosophical traditions are clear influences on "The Age of Reason", Paine owes the greatest intellectual debt to the English deists of the early 18th century, such as Peter Annet. John Toland had argued for the use of reason in interpreting scripture, Matthew Tindal had argued against revelation, Middleton had described the Bible as mythology and questioned the existence of miracles, Thomas Morgan had disputed the claims of the Old Testament, Thomas Woolston had questioned the believability of miracles and Thomas Chubb had maintained that Christianity lacked morality. All of those arguments appear in "The Age of Reason" albeit less coherently.