"Though it is not a direct article of the Christian system that this world that we inhabit is the whole of the habitable Creation, yet it is so worked up therewith, from what is called the Mosaic account of the creation, the story of Eve and the apple, and the counterpart of that story, the death of the Son of God, that to believe otherwise, that is, to believe that God created a plurality of worlds, at least as numerous as what we call stars, renders the christian system of faith at once little and ridiculous; and scatters it in the mind like feathers in the air."
The Age of Reason; Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology. 
Thomas Paine, <u>The Age of Reason; Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology. </u> (Paris: Printed by Barrois, London: Sold by D. I. Eaton, 1794). &lt;<a href="http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/1083">Link to Liberty Fund's Online Library of Liberty</a>&gt;