Which of the following establishes Thomas Paine as a Diest?
A. He wrote a manifesto declaring what he did and didn't believe, which is something Deists did all the time.
B. He believed that all religions were set up to trick and enslave mankind. A central tenet of Deism is that all men should be free.
C. He believed that the true study of God comes from studying nature and natural law. This shows his beliefs that God created the world, but doesn't interact with it now, so the only way to know about God is to study the world he created.
D. He believed that Christians were atheists. This shows his beliefs that Christians denied the truth preached by Deist preachers like George Whitfield.