The text that I found to be the least interesting was, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God", by Jonathan Edwards. Not only was this piece incredibly bland, but also I found it to have a negative tone. As a Christian, one of the first things I remember learning was that every creation of God has sin. Everyone sins and every sin carries the same weight when it comes to judgment in the eyes of God. In this text, the author Edwards uses this principle but makes it sound extremely harsh by stereotyping all sinners and non-believers by referring to them as "damned" and "wicked". From these word choices, Edwards seems closed off to ideas that don't align with his view. Edwards also writes, "God has so many different unsearchable ways of taking wicked men out of the world and sending 'em to hell, that there is nothing to make it appear that God had need to be at the expense of a miracle, or go out of the ordinary course of his providence, to destroy any wicked man, at any moment". Statements like this one, which seem to be reiterated throughout Edwards' writing, make it seem like God's only job is to seek out anyone who has ever sinned and destroy them and send them to hell. Also this statement shows how Edwards believed heavily in the determinism views, as this shows how he believes that God is actively involved in the lives of his creation by pre-determining how he going to send all of the "wicked" to hell. .
The text that I found to be the most interesting was, "The Age of Reason" by Thomas Paine. Contrary to "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God", by Jonathan Edwards, this text was substantially more positive and I could immediately see the author's deist views.
