Rizal and Paine and the Bible

Here are the words of the English-born American revolutionary Thomas Paine in his Age of Reason. I have no doubt Rizal while in Europe must have read this book with much gusto: “Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half the bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness, that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel.” Poch Suzara