Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine

When reading the works of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine, it is very recognizable that each of them has a distinct temperament. One of the first things I happened to notice when reading the works of Franklin and Paine was the difference of belief and reasoning. I felt that Franklin was more of a believer than Paine because he had a very religious background and was a strong advocate for organized religion.

A great example that shows this is in the second part of his autobiography when he says, "Tho' I seldom attended and Public Worship, I had still an Opinion of its Propriety, and of its Utility when rightly conducted, and I regularly paid my annual Subscription for the Support of the only Presbyterian Minister or Meeting we had in Philadelphia.

What I deciphered here was that Franklin does not particularly attend these scheduled religious practices, but he does support the idea of public worship. On the other hand, Paine seems to lean more towards the idea of reasoning rather than belief. This is very apparent because in the very first sentence of "The Crisis he says, "To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture. Whether or not you agree with either of their philosophies, you can tell how passionate they are about their ideas.

Another difference between Franklin and Paine is their variance in religion itself. As stated earlier, Franklin does not attend religious gatherings at churches, however he does support the idea of religious gatherings. Paine seems to focus more on the political side of religion and talks about the many problems with a monarchial government, especially England. He backs this up by saying, "As the exalting one man so greatly above the rest cannot be justified on the equal rights of nature, so neither can it be defended on the authority of scripture; for the will of the almighty, as declared by Gideon and the prophet Samuel, expressly disapproves of government by kings. What Paine says here is that there should not be a government with a king or queen because the Bible says so.

Religion is not the only difference in temperament that Franklin and Paine have. They also have a difference on their views of America. Franklin says that America has improved from the significant number of libraries by saying, "These libraries have improv'd the general Conversation of the Americans, made the common Tradesmen and Farmers as intelligent as most Gentlemen from other countries, and perhaps have contributed in some degree to the Stand so generally made throughout the Colonies in defense of their Privileges. Paige has a different view of America saying, "The conferring members being met, let their businesses be to frame a continental charter, or Charter of the United Colonies. Again, Paige has a more political mindset, although this time he is referring to America instead of religion.After reading Paine, I felt that he was straightforward when it came to his writing than Franklin's.

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