Quiz: The Age of Reason

All 30 questions. A perfect score earns the gold medal; 80% earns silver.

1. 1. Whom does Paine cite as condemned for discoveries made with the telescope?

   Galileo Copernicus Newton Kepler
2. 2. Which sect does Paine call the only one that has not persecuted, and why?

   The Unitarians, because they reject the doctrine of the Trinity The Quakers, because they are rather deists than Christians The Moravians, because they refuse to bear arms or swear oaths The Methodists, because they preach to the poor in the open air
3. 3. Which ancient book does Paine say commands universal belief regardless of who wrote it?

   Homer’s Iliad Aristotle’s Physics and Metaphysics Euclid’s Elements of Geometry Plato’s Republic, on justice and the state
4. 4. What question does Paine say decides the credibility of any reported miracle?

   Was the miracle seen by several independent witnesses of good character? Was it foretold by a prophet before it happened, and fulfilled exactly? Is it likelier that nature went out of her course, or that a man lied? Did it serve a moral purpose worthy of the Creator?
5. 5. Which branch of science does Paine call “the soul of science”, applied in astronomy, navigation and surveying?

   Optics Chemistry Algebra Trigonometry
6. 6. Which renamings does Paine use to illustrate his argument about the place-name Dan?

   Lutetia to Paris, and Londinium to London Philadelphia to Liberty, and Versailles to Berceau New Amsterdam to New York, and Havre-de-Grace to Havre Marat Boston to Shawmut, and Calais to Port-Égalité
7. 7. To whose proverbs does Paine compare the Proverbs ascribed to Solomon?

   Those of the Spaniards and of Franklin Those of Aesop and of the Duc de La Rochefoucauld Those of Confucius and of the Stoic Seneca Those of the Arabs and the Persians
8. 8. According to Paine, what is a revelation to everyone except its first recipient?

   A miracle A mystery Hearsay Prophecy
9. 9. What source of dates does Paine say he will use in examining the Old Testament?

   The chronology printed in the margins of Bibles The Egyptian king lists Newton’s chronology of ancient kingdoms Josephus’s Antiquities
10. 10. Having rejected the creeds of every church, what does Paine say is his church?

    The French Republic His own mind The creation The Society of Friends
11. 11. What does Paine claim the word “prophet” originally meant?

    Historian Judge Poet Priest
12. 12. To what courtroom situation does Paine compare the gospel accounts of the empty tomb?

    A prosecutor whose case rests on a single, interested witness A judge ruling on a disputed will A jury unable to reach a verdict on the evidence given Witnesses giving contradictory evidence for an alibi
13. 13. Which disciple does Paine cite as refusing to believe in the resurrection without proof?

    Judas Bartholomew Thomas John
14. 14. What does Paine conclude about the book of Job?

    Probably a gentile book, the oldest in the Bible It was written by Moses during the forty years in the wilderness It was composed by Solomon in old age, as Ecclesiastes was It is a late satire on the prophets
15. 15. What event in France does Paine say precipitated his writing on religion?

    The publication of Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France The execution of Louis XVI and the trial of the Girondin deputies His own election to the National Convention for the Pas-de-Calais The total abolition of the national priesthood in France
16. 16. What error does Paine find in the census of returning exiles in Ezra 2?

    The list counts the same family twice It names families that had never gone into exile at all The total exceeds the population of Judah under the Persians The listed families add up to far less than the stated total
17. 17. To what does Paine attribute his escape from the accusation Robespierre had planned?

    A severe fever that left him near death in prison The intervention of the prison keeper Benoit His secret transfer to another prison The protest of the American minister in Paris
18. 18. What natural example does Paine offer, against Paul, as evidence for a future life?

    The snake shedding its skin and renewing itself The grain of wheat dying and sprouting The phoenix rising again from its own ashes The caterpillar changing into a butterfly
19. 19. Which pagan fable does Paine say suggested the story of Satan confined in a pit?

    Pandora’s box The Titans thrown into Tartarus by Jupiter after their ten-year war Prometheus chained to the Caucasus The giant defeated by Jupiter and confined under Mount Etna
20. 20. What does Paine argue follows if Moses himself wrote “the man Moses was very meek”?

    The verse must be a mistranslation He was a vain boaster, since to boast of meekness is not meekness He was writing as a prophet, foreseeing how later ages would judge him He was quoting an earlier source
21. 21. According to the Preface to Part II, which motion in the Convention led to Paine’s arrest?

    A motion to suppress all writings against religion A motion to try the deputies who had voted against the king’s execution A motion to expel the deputies of the Gironde A motion to exclude foreigners from the Convention
22. 22. How does Paine compare the genealogies of Jesus in Matthew and Luke?

    Both give forty-two generations but different names Matthew gives twenty-eight generations from David, Luke forty-three Matthew begins with Adam, Luke with Abraham Luke traces the line through Mary, Matthew through Joseph
23. 23. On what idea does Paine say the doctrine of redemption is based?

    Divine mercy, which forgives freely without any payment Pecuniary justice, like a debt another person can pay Natural law, binding on God himself Moral justice, which punishes only the guilty person
24. 24. How does Paine say the church determined which books were the Word of God?

    By the decree of an emperor By vote By the testimony of the apostles By drawing lots
25. 25. What does Paine say is the true Word of God?

    The creation we behold The Gospels without the Epistles The law of nations The conscience of each person
26. 26. What does Paine recall reacting against at the age of seven or eight?

    A whipping at the grammar school for neglecting Latin His father’s Quaker meeting A sermon on the eternal punishment of the damned A sermon on redemption by the death of God’s Son
27. 27. Why does Paine deny that the end of Isaiah 44 and the start of Isaiah 45 were written by Isaiah?

    They praise Cyrus, whose decree came about 162 years after Isaiah’s death They mention the destruction of the Second Temple They are written in Aramaic They quote the book of Ezra word for word
28. 28. Why, according to Paine, could Psalm 137 not have been written by David?

    It commemorates the Babylonian captivity, centuries after David It is written in Greek It is written in a late Greek dialect unknown in David’s time It contradicts David’s own account of his reign in the books of Samuel
29. 29. What does Paine say Elisha’s prophecy to the three kings amounted to?

    Predicting the defeat of Moab within forty days of battle Promising rain if they first sacrificed a burnt offering to the Lord Warning them that the king of Israel would die in the battle To dig ditches for water, as any countryman might
30. 30. Which psalm does Paine quote, and in whose version?

    The 8th Psalm, in Milton’s translation The 19th Psalm, in Addison’s verse paraphrase The 23rd Psalm, in the King James Version The 104th Psalm, in Watts’s hymn