From Puritanism to Enlightenment
Throughout history society's view on the world has progressively developed. This is made evident when Puritan idealism is confronted by enlightened thinking. The collision of these two ideas would create different ideologies while maintaining some similarities in the development of the new America. The Puritans progressiveness towards reforming the doctrine would later be challenged by the individual thinkers of the Enlightenment writers. To the Puritans, all things could be explained using faith based truths and any outside explanations would be blasphemous. They saw no need for science involvement. The Enlightenment thinkers saw things much differently citing their facts and beliefs towards scientific interference. None the less, these periods cultivated many writers that would share their knowledge and beliefs thru various publications that would change America forever.
The Enlightenment Age sought to return Western culture and its civilization to the Greek ideal of reason. The Enlightenment's core basis argued that humans were capable of establishing rational conclusions based upon experiments, observations and careful thought.
The belief was that the decision making process should not be based on myth, magic and religious superstition and believing that "because science made the world seem more comprehensible, many put less stock in revealed religion" (Enlightenment Ideals 159). The enlightenment gave a developmental boost to capitalism and democracy. Puritans, on the other hand, wanted to remain what they deemed and pure according the bible. They believed that the Church of Rome had corrupted the word. Many of the Puritans believed that every word of the Bible was literally true and should be followed to the letter. When the government of England could not be convinced of their religious faith and Puritan reform, they left England for North America, starting the puritan colonies.
Ben Franklin was considered the most famous Enlightenment Age writers...