(Mike Konrad) In college, we are taught that one of the founders of the American Revolution, Thomas Paine, was a deist. Indeed, he was. What the professors did not tell us was that Paine’s masterpiece, “Common Sense” — the pamphlet that persuaded the American people to move from merely seeking some redress of grievance from the British government to flat out seeking independence — made almost all of its arguments from the Bible.