re: Who all has read "The Age of Reason" by Thomas Paine?

He was explaining the flaws in the bible to those who took it as literal and the actual word of god.

It was similar to Silent Spring for the environmental movement in the way it brought forth a change of perspective and united those of similar mindsets.

I agree with what you've stated, but you have to imagine the uphill battle he had even publishing this work. It was heresey.

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It stands to reason that you can't say that something was most likely altered, then proceed to draw conclusions because of how it was written.

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Unless you draw the conclusion that Scripture, having been altered in virtually every way possible, must automatically negate the possibility that the Bible is the sovereign word of God himself. If you have a book which has been at the mercy of religious leaders of varying viewpoints over the course of centuries, lacks original copies or even copies written in the remote vicinity of time that the books are referring to, was often written by someone other than the alleged author, and has been subject to translations and revisions throughout its lifetime then the Bible has no more divine authority that the Odyssey.

That's not an argument over semantics...