As we see in this segment of Document 6 “Reason is in the estimation of the philosopher what grace is to the Christian. Grace determines the Christian's action; reason the philosopher's.” the philosophers of the Enlightenment strove to explain everything by means of logic and reason which was a mindset that was pioneered during the Scientific Revolution. Essentially, Enlightenment thinkers took the rational mindset from scientific discoveries of the Scientific Revolution and began to apply it to society. Isaac Newton's discoveries established the principles of the Enlightenment. At the time, discovery was looked at with skepticism as people had become accustomed to the bible being the only source of information about the world.
“In God We Trust” is America's motto, introduced in 1956 to replace the original motto E Pluribus Unum, but was America Founded as a Christian nation? The major hurdle in answering the question is to define terms properly. The concept of a Christian nation is often written off because of misconceptions as to what this means. A Christian nation is not one in which all people in a society are all Christians, just as in an Islamic country, not all people are necessarily Moslems. But in a Christian nation, as our Founders would have defined it, the principles and institutional foundations are Biblically based and the people in general share a Biblical world-view.
Puritan immigrants arrived in New England, during the 1600s, settling and establishing in areas like Massachusetts Bay. In contrast to the Chesapeake region’s settlers, the Puritan settlers did not only come for economic interests, but rather out of aspiration to create a more pure, Christian society based on moral living and emphasis on the family and community. The Puritans had a strong impact on the development of the New England region, based on their religious emphasis and support for a theocratic political structure. By organizing their society based on their want to create a theocracy, the Puritans ensured that their values and ideas had a great impact on the political, economic, and social development of the New England colonies from 1630s through the 1660s. In the political development of New England, the Puritans influenced the region by basing the political structure on a theocratic model that enforced firm moral obedience.
DBQ 6: Enlightenment Thinkers and Their Impact on European Rulers The Age of Enlightenment was a time where cultural and intellectual ideas from Western Europe brought reason, analysis, and individualism to the rest of Europe and replaced former traditional authority. The Age of Enlightenment was most frequently known as the Age of Reason because it reformed society from the authority of the church to a society of science and skepticism. The Enlightenment philosophy was promoted by local enlightenment thinkers that stressed liberty, freedom from the church’s authority, and worked to abolish serfdom. A number of the Enlightenment philosophers influenced society by publishing texts. New ideas and beliefs spread through Europe and worldwide and marked a change from only having religious texts to also providing intellectual texts.
In Rhode Island, people such as Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson challenged the Church of England as well as Puritan beliefs. Anne Hutchinson argues that people had the ability to talk to God, and that it was unnecessary to go to Church as well as reading the Bible. Roger Williams, also with radical ideas, questions whether the government had the right to regulate religious behavior. Also, he pursued people to make a clean break from the Church of England. In Rhode Island, Williams established a Baptist church, with freedom of religion.
For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here (Thinking).” Here, Patrick Henry went against the very first Amendment to the Constitution, which asserts, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…(Bill of Rights)” In saying that the United States was indeed founded on the religious practices and morals of Christian life, Henry stood for everything that all the Founding Fathers believed as a whole. Several people would agree with him, saying that the only reason religious freedom is allowed is because those who originally governed the U.S. were good Christian men, and therefore welcomed with open arms any of those who fled to America in pursuit of liberty of religious persecution
He opens his speech by acknowledging the role of religious groups in the building of the American society. This is an issue that had no coverage in Johnson’s address. While Reagan concentrates on religious beliefs as the instigators of social growth and development, Johnson preferred that use of education and riches as the means to achieve the same goal. This contrast is evident in the way these two presidents gave their opening speeches. The other big contrast between these two speeches is Reagan’s reiteration the freedom and liberty are things that can only be enjoyed with the full blessings of God (Rodgers, 2011, p164).
Religious Beliefs: as far as the “united Christian nation” or so that’s how the leaders saw it. In my opinion religion was only used as a means to gain power hence the word “used”. B. Moral Beliefs: everyone should have free will, freedom of speech and so on, once America saw and fixed its own shortcomings as a nation, it then looked down on other nations that were not as pressured by the people to change. America
Science, scientific method, logic, experimentation, education and reasoning were at the focal point of this movement. Enlightenment began primarily with those individuals who we were disenchanted and seek “objective” knowledge out side of the realm of politics. As a result, a new class was formed which challenged the role of Europe’s nobility as well as the church. Lower class Europeans also began to create, write, and rule as a result of a newly gained confidence through the use of science and the scientific method. New Philosophies emerged during enlightenment that explained how the universe operated.
Enlightenment thinkers had three main long term beliefs that helped to shape America’s government. The first was belief in progress. The idea of progress was born after the scientific revolution, which influenced people to use human reason to solve social problems. Secondly, it caused people to stop looking at their church for guidance and to start using reason and logic to solve problems. The Enlightenment thinkers also wanted to abolish religious superstitions and promote tolerance of all religions.