Final answer:
The primary focus of Thomas Paine's "The Age of Reason" is a religious critique, emphasizing reason over faith and advocating Enlightenment ideals such as liberty and progress.
Step-by-step explanation:
The primary focus of Thomas Paine's book, "The Age of Reason", is B) Religious Critique. In this work, Paine critiques the institution of organized religion and challenges the legitimacy of the Bible, advocating for Deism and emphasizing reason over blind faith in supernatural revelation. His views reflect the Enlightenment ideals of using reason as the cornerstone for understanding life and society, thus encouraging religious tolerance and intellectual exchange.
During the Enlightenment or the Age of Reason, influential thinkers like John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau explored ideas of natural law, social contracts, and the rights of the individual against traditional divine right of monarchs. Paine's religious critique in "The Age of Reason" falls in line with these paradigms, denying the divine right of kings and pushing for the shedding of what were seen as superstitions from an older age.
The book was a part of a larger movement that questioned established authorities and proposed that human reason, coupled with empirical study, could lead to individual and societal improvement. It played a significant role in promoting the Enlightenment ideals of liberty, progress, and separation of church and state, ultimately influencing political and religious thought of the time.