Ceaseless controversy †Christianity Essay

The 18th century England was entangled in ceaseless controversy. The first half(prenominal) of the century was marked by political movements, the rise of skeptics and deists ( judiciousness period) whereas in the reciprocal ohm half, revivification within the church became the issue at stake. Harris states that the century witnessed deterioration in ghostly tradition, which resulted from a new spirit of individualism, attended by the development of new literary forms.1 Ancient records served as the basis for the claims of Christian theology,2 and the deists questioned their authenticity.The deists similarly ignored revealed holiness, laying emphasis on the religion of nature, which is based on reason. As Cragg infers, gradu exclusivelyy reason to a faultk the rig of theology, and served as a principal grammatical constituent preoccupying the centurys thought. Moreover, its supremacy as a foundation of faith was univers whollyy accepted.3 As a result, the deists expressed t heir objections to Christianity, considering it as a religion contrary to reason.The judgment period of the 18th century also came up with biblical criticism. New methods of a posteriori science were applied to the study of all disciplines, including the tidings.4 Consequently, a number of distinguished writers subjected the rule book to criticism. One of these personalities was Thomas Paine. In his second part of The Age of spring, he attacked the account book based on his own investigation.In 1796 Richard Watson, bishop of Liandaff (1737-1816),5 wrote a refutation against Paines book, entitle An Apology for the give-and-take. Thus, Paines The Age of Reason (II) and Watsons refutation represent enlightenment insights and religious authority respectively, which stood at participation in the 18th century. By analyse their different perspectives, this paper depart shew that Paines short letter is based on reason whereas Watsons is based on Biblical authority and tradition. Paine is a worshipper in natural religion, and so his literary works are opposed to the assumptions of revealed religion. For him, theology amply reveals himself not in written record but through the universe, which can be communicated to anyone without being falsified as the account book is. Therefore, in his attack against the revealed religion, he primarily searched for errors in the discussion. Raising a object lesson issue, he quoted a verse from the Bible wherein divinity ordered the Israelites to attack the Canaanites. From this he reason out that the Bible cannot be the word of God, as it includes a clean-livingly defective fib which the creator of soldiery by no means commissions to be done.6 According to Paine, it is absurd to Gods moral judge that he should doom to destruction the holler or smiling infants of the Canaanites.In his reply, Watson exhibit his defense of the revealed religion. He contends that if we are to scorn the revealed religion in thi s way, the same will be true for natural religion, because it is lucid that earthquakes too swallow up men, women, the particular ones, and infants. Then, why do you not advance it to be repugnant to Gods moral justice, Watson asks Paine, that he should suffer holler or smiling infants to be swallowed up by an earthquake, drowned by an inundation, consumed by fire, avid by famine or finished by pestilence?7 This indicates that concord to Watson, there is also a defect in the deists bible, i.e. nature.If the Bible is to be regarded defective in moral accounts because of the destruction of the infants of the Canaanites, Paines bible (nature) too is every bit defective. In another words, Watson infers that what is revealed in nature is found in the Bible, so they are not contradictory to all(prenominal) other. Therefore Watson argues that it is unfair for Paine to criticize the Bible without equally comparing it with his bible (nature). He strongly expresses his objections as you have no right, in fairness of reasoning to incite any apparent deviation from moral justice as an argument against revealed religion because you do not urge an equally apparent deviation from it, as an argument against natural religion you reject the causation and admit the latter (Apology, 91). In this way, Watson views Paines argument of morality as dark and unjust.For Watson, the Bible which he regards as a divine instruction given to some, and traditionally communicated to all is inevitable, for it is the inspiration of God (Apology, 85). In my opinion, all Watsons arguments lie on this key assumption. He does not critically question the authenticity of the books in the Bible as Paine does. For example, one of the books in the Pentateuch tells us that Moses spoke face to face to God, and wrote conquer what God had instructed him. This is undoubtedly acceptable for Watson. He does not accept any philosophical thought that may rob him of his Bible. however if Paine, fol lowing his motto my own understanding is my own church8 accepts only what seems agreeable to his mind.Watson considers the Bible as an unfailing guide, but Paine considers his reason as infallible and self-sufficient. While Paine tries his best to prove that the Bible contains morally offensive accounts, Watson learns morality from the Bible. He addressed Paine the Bible, which you despise, has taught me not to judge anyone it has express to me, who are you to judge another mans servant? To his own win he stands or falls (Apology, 7.) Watson came to spang everything acceptable to his mind from the Bible, as his confesses Gods word has assured me of all that I am concerned to retire (Apology, 17.)