To Control Our Nation’s Future We Must Know Our Past
From Puritanism to Reason
1. We studied the Puritans to uncover/discover why “faith” plays such an important role in the lives of most Americans. A Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll asked Americans about their beliefs. And here are the results.
92% of us say we believe in God;
85%, heaven
74%, hell
71%, devil
34% believe in ghosts
24% believe in witches.
Now we are studying the Age of Reason also known as The Enlightenment. It was the cultural time period in which science and logic were held as the most important of human endeavors. Political pamphlets and political writing and speeches were the most popular forms of writing. People such as Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine etc. wrote important pieces of literature in which they used logic and reason to convince Americans to believe certain political points of view.
We are still a nation that is very interested and involved in politics. Today, writings covering political beliefs and positions are more popular than ever. Why? Because of our inherited cultural identity as Americans from The Age of Reason.
Rise of Rationalism and Independence
Beginning in Europe near the end of the seventeenth century, a group of philosophers and scientists began calling themselves rationalists. This marked the start of the Age of Reason, which soon had a growing influence in America. These rationalists believed that people can discover truth by using their own reason rather than relying on only religious faith or intuition. Along with a homegrown American sense of practicality, the ideas of these European thinkers inspired many of the triumphs of eighteenth-century American life. The great by-product of rationalism in America was the mind-set that resulted in the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution.
The Age of Reason: Tinkerers and Experimenters
By the end of the seventeenth century, new ideas that had been fermenting in Europe began to present a challenge to the unshakable faith of the Puritans.
The Age of Reason, or the Enlightenment, began in Europe with the philosophers and scientists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries who called themselves rationalists. Rationalism is the belief that human beings can arrive at truth by using reason, rather than by relying on the authority of the past, on religious faith, or on intuition.
The Puritans saw God as actively and mysteriously involved in the workings of the universe; the rationalists saw God differently. The great English rationalist Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727), who formulated the laws of gravity and motion, compared God to a clockmaker. Having created the perfect mechanism of this universe, God then left his creation to run on its own, like a clock. The rationalists believed that God’s special gift to humanity is reason—the ability to think in an ordered, logical manner. This gift of reason enables people to discover both scientific and spiritual truth. According to the rationalists, then, everyone has the capacity to regulate and improve his or her own life.
While the theoretical background for the Age of Reason took shape in Europe, a homegrown practicality and interest in scientific tinkering or experimenting was already thriving in the American Colonies. From the earliest Colonial days, Americans had to be generalists and tinkerers; they had to make do with what was on hand, and they had to achieve results.
Deism: Are People Basically Good?
Like the Puritans, the rationalists discovered God through the medium of the natural world, but in a different way. Rationalists thought it unlikely that God would choose to reveal himself only at particular times to particular people. It seemed much more reasonable to believe that God had made it possible for all people at all times to discover natural laws through their God-given power of reason.
This outlook, called deism, was shared by many eighteenth-century thinkers, including many founders of the American nation. American deists came from different religious backgrounds, but they avoided supporting specific denominations.
Deists believed that the universe was orderly and good. In contrast to the Puritans, deists stressed humanity’s goodness. They believed in the perfectibility of every individual through the use of reason. God’s objective, in the deist view, was the happiness of his creatures. Therefore, the best form of worship was to do good for others. There already existed in America an impulse to improve people’s lives, as Cotton Mather’s struggle to save Boston from smallpox illustrates.
Deists believed that the universe was orderly and good. In contrast to the Puritans, deists stressed humanity’s goodness. They believed in the perfectibility of every individual through the use of reason. God’s objective, in the deist view, was the happiness of his creatures. Therefore, the best form of worship was to do good for others. There already existed in America an impulse to improve people’s lives, as Cotton Mather’s struggle to save Boston from smallpox illustrates.
The American struggle for independence was justified largely by appeals to rationalist principles. The arguments presented in the Declaration of Independence are based on rationalist assumptions about the relations between people, God, and natural law.
From Puritanism to Reason
1. We studied the Puritans to uncover/discover why “faith” plays such an important role in the lives of most Americans. A Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll asked Americans about their beliefs. And here are the results.
92% of us say we believe in God;
85%, heaven
74%, hell
71%, devil
34% believe in ghosts
24% believe in witches.
Now we are studying the Age of Reason also known as The Enlightenment. It was the cultural time period in which science and logic were held as the most important of human endeavors. Political pamphlets and political writing and speeches were the most popular forms of writing. People such as Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine etc. wrote important pieces of literature in which they used logic and reason to convince Americans to believe certain political points of view.
We are still a nation that is very interested and involved in politics. Today, writings covering political beliefs and positions are more popular than ever. Why? Because of our inherited cultural identity as Americans from The Age of Reason.
Rise of Rationalism and Independence
Beginning in Europe near the end of the seventeenth century, a group of philosophers and scientists began calling themselves rationalists. This marked the start of the Age of Reason, which soon had a growing influence in America. These rationalists believed that people can discover truth by using their own reason rather than relying on only religious faith or intuition. Along with a homegrown American sense of practicality, the ideas of these European thinkers inspired many of the triumphs of eighteenth-century American life. The great by-product of rationalism in America was the mind-set that resulted in the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution.
The Age of Reason: Tinkerers and Experimenters
By the end of the seventeenth century, new ideas that had been fermenting in Europe began to present a challenge to the unshakable faith of the Puritans.
The Age of Reason, or the Enlightenment, began in Europe with the philosophers and scientists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries who called themselves rationalists. Rationalism is the belief that human beings can arrive at truth by using reason, rather than by relying on the authority of the past, on religious faith, or on intuition.
The Puritans saw God as actively and mysteriously involved in the workings of the universe; the rationalists saw God differently. The great English rationalist Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727), who formulated the laws of gravity and motion, compared God to a clockmaker. Having created the perfect mechanism of this universe, God then left his creation to run on its own, like a clock. The rationalists believed that God’s special gift to humanity is reason—the ability to think in an ordered, logical manner. This gift of reason enables people to discover both scientific and spiritual truth. According to the rationalists, then, everyone has the capacity to regulate and improve his or her own life.
While the theoretical background for the Age of Reason took shape in Europe, a homegrown practicality and interest in scientific tinkering or experimenting was already thriving in the American Colonies. From the earliest Colonial days, Americans had to be generalists and tinkerers; they had to make do with what was on hand, and they had to achieve results.
Deism: Are People Basically Good?
Like the Puritans, the rationalists discovered God through the medium of the natural world, but in a different way. Rationalists thought it unlikely that God would choose to reveal himself only at particular times to particular people. It seemed much more reasonable to believe that God had made it possible for all people at all times to discover natural laws through their God-given power of reason.
This outlook, called deism, was shared by many eighteenth-century thinkers, including many founders of the American nation. American deists came from different religious backgrounds, but they avoided supporting specific denominations.
Deists believed that the universe was orderly and good. In contrast to the Puritans, deists stressed humanity’s goodness. They believed in the perfectibility of every individual through the use of reason. God’s objective, in the deist view, was the happiness of his creatures. Therefore, the best form of worship was to do good for others. There already existed in America an impulse to improve people’s lives, as Cotton Mather’s struggle to save Boston from smallpox illustrates.
Deists believed that the universe was orderly and good. In contrast to the Puritans, deists stressed humanity’s goodness. They believed in the perfectibility of every individual through the use of reason. God’s objective, in the deist view, was the happiness of his creatures. Therefore, the best form of worship was to do good for others. There already existed in America an impulse to improve people’s lives, as Cotton Mather’s struggle to save Boston from smallpox illustrates.
The American struggle for independence was justified largely by appeals to rationalist principles. The arguments presented in the Declaration of Independence are based on rationalist assumptions about the relations between people, God, and natural law.