Thinkers Leaders: Most Influential Westerners

[Abu-Salman]

Well, there were some reformers notewhorty in the West too and who had some influence there.

Thomas Paine for exemple had a profund impact on British, French and American societies at historical times.

He was admired By Abraham Lincoln, his autodidact other American founding father colleague and celebrated leader (with atypical ethics for his time too) or even reforming Napoleon.

 

Similar to John Ruskin who championed the fight against urban pollution, lack of open space and for social equity, Paine was however self-taught and with wider, more fundamental causes.

 

Despite being criticised as anti-Christian if not atheist (most reformers were discouraged by the church's feudalism and incoherences), the man comes as much more spiritual and monotheistic than most nominal Christians.

God's universe must be studied and contemplated for deeper spirituality and better morality, he pleads, echoing many leading scientists (and as repeatedly encouraged by the Quraan).

 

He advocated fiercely for liberation against the "birth-rights" of aristocracy, flawed institutions and traditions;

an idealist uninterested and fearless, he was initially held as a public danger, the epitome of treason against his country, its culture and institutions.

 

His vision is a society who offers no concession to classes divisions, condemns racism and places the well-being of the common man as its goal (as coherent with the Islamic model), instead of small-minded interests or chauvinistic nationalism.

 

 

"Of all the systems of religion that ever were invented, there is none more derogatory to the Almighty, more unedifying to man, more repugnant to reason, and more contradictory in itself, than this thing called Christianity. Too absurd for belief, too impossible to convince, and too inconsistent for practice, it renders the heart torpid, or produces only atheists and fanatics."

 

"The study of theology as it stands in Christian churches, is the study of nothing; it is founded on nothing; it rests on no principles; it proceeds by no authorities; it has no data; it can demonstrate nothing; and admits of no conclusion. Not any thing can be studied as a science without our being in possession of the principles upon which it is founded; and as this is not the case with Christian theology, it is therefore the study of nothing."

 

"The Christian religion is a parody on the worship of the sun, in which they put a man called Christ in the place of the sun, and pay him the adoration originally payed to the sun."

 

He described himself as deist, saying:

 

"How different is [Christianity] to the pure and simple profession of Deism! The true Deist has but one Deity, and his religion consists in contemplating the power, wisdom, and benignity of the Deity in his works, and in endeavoring to imitate him in everything moral, scientifical, and mechanical."

 

and again, in The Age of Reason:

I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life. I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy

 

 

Isnt it strange that most altruistic, courageous personages who dared and struggled to oppose their societies deeply rooted traditions and think for themselves share so much?

 

Does real intelligence leads to universally transcending thinking where only truth and the well-being of each man matters, instead of races, countries or age-old traditions?