"I have as little superstition in me as any man living, but my secret opinion has ever been, and still is, that God Almighty will not give up a people to military destruction, or leave them unsupportedly to perish, who have so earnestly and so repeatedly sought to avoid the calamities of war, by every decent method which wisdom could invent." Which best describes the central idea of this excerpt? Paine is not a superstitious man, but he does have strong beliefs. Paine believes the colonists have done all they could to avoid war. Paine’s secret opinion is that God will help the colonists gain independence and that they will not be conquered. Paine’s opinion is that God will not allow the colonists to be conquered because they have tried so hard to avoid war.