The Age of Reason
Before his arrest and imprisonment in France, knowing that he would probably be arrested and executed, following in the tradition of early eighteenth-century British deism Paine wrote the first part of "The Age of Reason", an assault on organized "revealed" religion combining a compilation of the many inconsistencies he found in the Bible. Paine's religious views as expressed in "The Age of Reason" caused quite a stir in religious society, effectively splitting the religious groups into two major factions: those who wanted church disestablishment, and the Christians who wanted Christianity to continue having a strong social influence.