Social agitator Thomas Paine was an influential political writer whose support of revolution and republican government emboldened the American colonists to declare independence from England. However, his reputation was irreparably harmed by one of his later writings, The Age of Reason. Published in the 1790s, it criticizes organized religion and espouses Paine’s deist beliefs. Many people mistook it for an atheist tract and widely ostracized Paine thereafter. To whom was it dedicated? Discuss