How The Enlightenment Adresses Essay, Research Paper

GOLDINA, OLGA

ANALYZE THE WAYS IN WHICH ENLIGHTENMENT THOUGHT ADDRESSED RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN THE 18TH CENTURY

During the 18th century, the Enlightenment addressed religious beliefs and social issues, which were controversial among all the people and were not accepted by the government. During the 18th century the most talked about issues included the equality between women and men, the concept of organized religion, and the rights of mankind. These issues were all addressed in various ways but were influenced by the aftermath of the long religious conflicts that followed the Reformation, conflicts between men and woman, and the need for a better government.

During the 18th century and prior to that women were not considered to be equal to men and were not intelligent enough. However, in the Enlightenment women began to participate more in science, write books that were very popular but women were also excluded for academies and universities and men did not approve of this. Since women were participating more in man field were only men have worked, a controversy arouse on the position of women in society, in which men still though women were incapable of being intelligent. Despite the fact that everything was change during the Enlightenment, the idea of women being equal to men was addressed daily in salons were women participated the conversation but yet were being criticized. Consequently, the Enlightenment improved the position of women in society even though most men did not acknowledge but yet women were not considered completely equal to men.

The concept of organized religion has been around for thousand of year however, religion was being forced and enslaved humanity. Even though Enlightenment thinker did not renounce religion, they preferred Deism, accepting of good as a hereafter, but rejecting the perplexity of the Christian theology. However, the reason people began to renounce religion like Christianity was because of the religious conflicts that followed the Reformation, which called thousands of people in Europe. Consequently, because of the religious conflicts people wanted a religion that did not have as many demands and would allow people to have happiness and prosperity. Furthermore, the Enlightenment was a time when change occurred and people no longer wanted to have to accept a faith, and so the concept of faith and religion was a popular discussion among the men of the 18th century.

Mankind has always had conflicts with the government about the amount of say each person has in the decision that is made by the government. However, in the Enlightenment, the concept was that a new government was needed because the monarchy was no longer an effective government. Also the government was responsible for all the social issues because it denies people the freedom of expiration by censoring what people could say or write. Basically, men wanted to have more rights, which would allow them to have addressee any social issues that was being censored by the government. Consequently, after mankind has been living with a monarchy government for most of the time, people will want change, men will want more rights, and a social controversy will occur among the people.

The 18th century was a time of change and new ideas among the people. However the way, people dealt with the changes was very different for every issue. Women were given more rights but not considered equal to men, the idea of organized religion became unfavorable, and mane kind wanted a new type of government to deal with the social and religious issues. Consequently, the Enlightenment addressees social issues and religious beliefs by making a change to a certain extent and changed the way people thought.