Question: What English and American political activist wrote a book that helped Joseph L. Lewis leave theism?

<P0-S0> Alvin Plantinga's free will defense is a logical argument developed by American analytic philosopher Alvin Plantinga, the John A. O'Brien Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame, and published in its final version in his 1977 book "God, Freedom, and Evil". <P0-S1>  Plantinga's argument is a defense against the logical problem of evil as formulated by philosopher J. L. Mackie beginning in 1955. <P0-S2>  Mackie's formulation of the logical problem of evil argued that three attributes of God, omniscience, omnipotence, and omnibenevolence, in orthodox Christian theism are logically incompatible with the existence of evil. <P0-S3>  In 1982, Mackie conceded that Plantinga's defense successfully refuted his argument in "The Miracle of Theism," though he did not claim that the problem of evil had been put to rest. <SEP> <P1-S0> John Burman (5 October 1838 – 14 May 1900) was an English first-class cricketer, who played one match for Yorkshire County Cricket Club, scoring a duck and a vital 1 not out against Cambridgeshire at Queens Park, Wisbech in 1867. <P1-S1>  That was his only first-class run, and his only contribution to the game, but it was a heroic innings as he was last man in, and helped Joseph Rowbotham take the score from 76 for 9, to the 91 they needed to complete a one wicket win. <SEP> <P2-S0>  It follows in the tradition of eighteenth-century British deism, and challenges institutionalized religion and the legitimacy of the Bible. <P2-S1>  It was published in three parts in 1794, 1795, and 1807. <P2-S2>  It was a best-seller in the United States, where it caused a short-lived deistic revival. <P2-S3>  British audiences, however, fearing increased political radicalism as a result of the French Revolution, received it with more hostility. <P2-S4> The Age of Reason; Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology is a work by English and American political activist Thomas Paine, arguing for the philosophical position of Deism. <P2-S5>  "The Age of Reason" presents common deistic arguments; for example, it highlights what Paine saw as corruption of the Christian Church and criticizes its efforts to acquire political power. <P2-S6>  Paine advocates reason in the place of revelation, leading him to reject miracles and to view the Bible as "an ordinary piece of literature rather than as a divinely inspired text". <P2-S7>  It promotes natural religion and argues for the existence of a creator-God. <SEP> <P3-S0>  During the mid-twentieth century, he was one of America’s most conspicuous public atheists, the other being Emanuel Haldeman-Julius. <P3-S1>  Born in Montgomery, Alabama to a Jewish family, he was forced by poverty to leave school at the age of nine to find employment. <P3-S2>  He read avidly, becoming self-educated. <P3-S3>  Lewis developed his ideas from reading, among others, Robert G. Ingersoll, whose published works made him aware of Thomas Paine. <P3-S4>  He later credited Paine's "The Age of Reason" with helping him leave theism. <P3-S5> Joseph Lewis (June 11, 1889 – November 4, 1968) was an American freethinker and atheist activist, publisher, and litigator.