Comparing The Enlightenment And The American Political System

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The Enlightenment, or the Age of Reason, was a movement questioning traditional authority while embracing the notion that the human capacity for reasoning could be improved through rational changes (Schultz, n.d.). Rejecting authority due to the infringement upon their inalienable rights, consisting of life, liberty and property led the colonists to preserve and fight for freedoms. Both the American Revolution and the American political system were inspired and influenced by the Enlightenment ideals. Educated people were suggesting that natural laws seemed to determine its own course, governing society and the universe without God’s intervention (Enlightenment, 2018). Religious intellectuals tried to find the balance between science and religion, in fact, Enlightenment wasn’t unfriendly to religion and did not produce atheists or agnostics. In 1636, Harvard was founded based on Puritan philosophy and not as a school for church alone, there would be a total of nine schools during this time frame, with four of them located in the New England area. …show more content…

The Great Awakening allowed the people to express emotions to feel an intimacy with God. The revival encouraged the development of numerous educational institutes like Princeton, Brown, and Rutgers universities and Dartmouth college. During this time frame, the surge of opposition led to a better understanding and acceptance of religious diversity (Great Awakening, 2018). The new faiths that developed were much more autonomous in their approach to the message embodying greater equivalence. The Great Awakening was the first key incident that the colonies collectively shared together, breaking down the variances between them and separating them from their English cousins across the ocean. However, it was very evident that no one faith would govern a

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