Enlightenment:

Before the Enlightenment, people were studying science and discovering many new things about science. They became fascinated with the science idea and began to think about everything scientifically. Scholars began to get answers to their problems from a scientific viewpoint and religion became less and less important. Bernard de Fontenelle communicated much scientific knowledge in a way that interested people. He made church appear as the enemy of scientific progress.

During the Enlightenment, intellectuals studied to know as much as they could about science. They tried to make everyone think in a scientific way. They tried to get religion, tradition, and the past out of their culture. They tried to find scientific laws that could govern their society. They introduced new kinds of education that taught knowledge without teaching religion. They thought this would make a better society.

A new belief said that religion and morality have nothing to do with each other. They taught that compelling people to believe a certain religion was wrong. Their new religion was that there is no real religion, and science dominated their minds.

Diderot advanced the scientific worldview by writing an Encyclopedia that explained religion out of the world. He thought that Christianity was unreasonable and his book sent Christianity out of his realm of thought. Other people began to write books that told how to live without any religion. John Locke believed that knowledge did not come from faith and heredity, but from reason and environment.

Some results of the Enlightenment showed up in different parts of the culture. Historians began to emphasize human works in their books instead of God’s plan. Histories told from a wider view of matters instead of from one person or event.

Since the people now believed that there was no god, they acted differently. Annual carnivals allowed people to be violent and insane. At the carnivals people reversed their culture so that lower classes dressed as royalty, upper classes were treated as peasants, men dressed as women, and women dressed as men. Drunkenness became very common and inns began to sell alcoholic beverages in much larger amounts.

The church was also changing at this time. The Catholics tried to conquer as many countries as possible. Catholic popes lost some of their respect and power. Monasteries were required to help society or to shut down. Jesuits were driven out of several countries where they used to live in peace. Jews were hated and began to be persecuted.

Yes, during the Enlightenment, the people got really messed up.

back era----next era----home page