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The Trouble With Tom: The Strange Afterlife and Times of Thomas Paine

Book by Paul Collins · 1 quotes · American History, Calvinism, Forgetting

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All American History Calvinism Forgetting History Memory Orson Fowler Perception Phrenology Progressivism Pseudoscience

The Trouble With Tom: The Strange Afterlife and Times of Thomas Paine Quotes

“Fowler's philosophy [of phrenology] is all about the possibility and real hope of change. Calvinistic predestination and hellfire are swept away in an instant; if the brain and its resultant behavior is malleable throughout one's life, then nobody is fated to remain bad: they can mend their ways and their selves... Bad actions became the correctable result of improper development, rather than machinations of some cloven-footed prat with a fiery pitchfork. What Fowler holds out is nothung less than the promise of redemption. Will it surprise you at all when, at long last, Fowler tears aside his scientific raiments, and reveals what he has been all along: a minister leading his flock heavenward? "[Let us] redouble our efforts for... that high and holy destiny hereafter as such by this great principle of ILLIMITABLE PROGRESSION!" Indeed. Look carefully around this empty plaza: what you see is nothing less than the birthplace of American progressivisim.”

American History Pseudoscience Calvinism Progressivism Phrenology Orson Fowler

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