Enlightenment...My Final Conclusion

Now that our class is coming to an end for the semester I can’t help but look back on all that I have learned and how it has had its impact on my beliefs. It is obvious to me, as it seems it is with most Americans, that our society has drastically changed over time and is continuing to change. Religion is still a very dominating issue within the United States, but over the years it has taken a new look. There is a greater variety of religions as well as a greater number of people without any religion at all. This class has led me to lean towards the belief of enlightenment and each person having their own understanding of things. Enlightenment seems more and more prevalent in our society, and others, because of the developments in education and societies understanding of the world we live in. Some of our class readings and an article I read online enforced my opinion on this belief and helped me understand where its origins really came from in the United States. I will start by sharing my favorite quote on enlightenment:

“Have the courage to use your own understanding” (Western World 149)

I feel that this quote says a lot about enlightenment and what is needed to allow it. Enlightenment is just the idea of every individual using their own knowledge and intelligence to understand life and everything concerning it. One must have the courage to step out of the pack and general consensus and allow themselves to believe in what they feel is right.

“This enlightenment requires nothing but freedom—and the most innocent of all that may be called “freedom”: freedom to make public use of one’s reason in all matters.” (Western World 150)

Freedom has not always been easy to come by in our world. Now that more freedoms are allowed to individuals in most countries, and especially the U.S, it is acceptable for an individual to believe in whatever they want and share it with others who might share their ideas. It seems that the United States has always been ahead of other countries when it comes to this freedom, and this is with good reason.

“Dr. Wood introduced enlightenment as a primary building block for America as a nation. Early Americans considered themselves pioneers of enlightenment, and they used this self view to establish and define the nation, a first in world history.”(Thomson).

America was founded by free thinking individuals who felt the best way to create a fair and equal nation was to allow freedom of speech, religion, and other beliefs. It seems to me that although we have had our ups and downs with these freedoms our nation was definitely created in a manner which would allow America to be the center of enlightenment and equality.

“Men like Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were stepping out of the monarchial traditions of their fathers and into a republican ideal in which all men are created equal. The people became citizens – individuals with equal say. Book learning was no longer reserved for the social elite. Eighteenth century Americans believed they have erased the idea of elitism in the first place! Here, according to Dr. Wood, we see the beginnings of the concept of a liberal arts education.”(Thomson).

My conclusion is that enlightenment will only grow as individuals advance in education, acceptance, and understanding of the world we live in, and although there may always be religious institutions, the overall freedom of allowing each person to believe in what they want, and express their beliefs, will become increasingly prevalent. This is now what I believe to be true.

“Eighteenth century America was not the climax of enlightenment. Instead, it served as a unique environment for the construction of a base for continual enlightenment. America's current values are rooted in those established during this time period. The American enlightenment represents the beginning of America's journey toward "true" civilization.”(Thomson).

Works Cited:

The Western World Philosophy. Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2008.

Thomson, Natalie. "American Enlightenment." Summary of a lecture by Gordon S. Wood. University of Maine at Farmington, September 25, 2005. Retrieved April 23, 2009 . .

Seperation of Church and State

During the past semester in this class I have heard a lot of new ideas and opinions which have impacted my beliefs on many different issues. One of the most significant changes I feel I have made is on my opinion of separation of church and state. While reading the assigned material I came across a statement that really made me think about this topic.

“However fraught with discord and even violence is the relation between a nation’s religion and political authority at any particular time, a deeper, more complex reconciliation between them is being worked out in the process.” (Lilla 184)

In my opinion what is trying to be stated here is that a nation’s religion and political authority will always have differences and problems but together they are working together to create order between their nations citizens. Both religion and government can create order and obedience and therefore are working towards a common goal. In this way a connection between church and state may not be such a bad thing. If they had a relationship with each other they would be able to coordinate with each other and try to achieve this goal together. The problem is when their goals are not exactly the same, and also when more than one religion is involved, conflict emerges. In most cases government and religion are working towards a common goal of obedience and proper conduct, so this is the less common problem, but it does make the more extreme group upset with the others practices resulting in conflict and/or violence. The problem of more than one organized religion being practiced within the domain of one political system is much more common in today’s world. With immigration being heavily practiced, and the expansion of different religious groups within a single society, most countries include many different religious or non-religious groups. This is where many problems arise. Most religions have different practices and beliefs. Because of this each one has its own goals it hopes to achieve with its followers. When the local government is involved they each fight with one another as well as the government to reach these goals. In this case it is important that the government have no connection between any one religious group. When the government keeps a separation of church and state it will be more successful at implementing its goal of law and order. I feel this separation of church and state can be seen to some extent in the United States. The U.S allows freedom of speech and religion and treats each faith equally, at least in theory.

Before I used to believe that it was a good thing to allow one faith, Christianity, to be connected with the U.S government in order to work together to maintain order and work towards a common goal of peace and unity. I have now come to believe that with the vast number of different beliefs held by American citizens this would only cause problems. I now believe that the most peaceful and proper way is to keep full separation of church and state, even more so than currently exists in America.

And we all love to watch the clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiZcKomzHaU

Religion in Government Bad?

Throughout this class I have really learned a lot about the conflicts of different religions and the many different perspectives on them. I have come to the conclusion that everyone needs to just take a few deep breathes and stop being so obsessed that their opinion or viewpoint is the right one. Everyone needs to be more open to various ideas even if they don't agree with them. This whole idea came to my mind when I came across a video on youtube about atheists. I watched the video and didn't really know what to think. In a way it made many valid points on how the seperation of church and state lacks in many ways. It is obvious that our government isn't perfect when it comes to keeping religion and government completely seperate, but does it need to be. Aetheists argue and complain that religion is bad and that our Constitution is supposed to be about seperation of church and state. The majority of Americans follow some sort of religion though. It seems perfectly fine to me that government allow a little combination of church and state as long as the majority of citizens are okay with it.

"This is, after all, the only modern society in the world in which it is possible for a presidential candidate, when asked to cite the philosopher whose ideas had the greatest impact upon him, to respond by naming Jesus Christ. When Americans need to come together, as they did in the aftermath of the attack of September 11, it is religious buildings that they will turn." (Wolfe 247)

It is true that our country is supposed to keep government and religion completely seperate so that ones freedom of religion isn't imposed upon. I just don't see how it is so bad that the government allow a little religion in it. Nobody's rights are really being violated. This all just brings me back to my original opinion. In my opinion it seems dumb that everyone gets so hostile over little details when it comes to religion and or politics. People need to just be a little more open and relax. Watch this video on this atheist who needs to relax a little bit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1ImMtHrrKo&feature=related

Morality and Religion

It is always interesting to think about the relationship between religion and moral beliefs. For the longest time I have always felt that religion must positively influence the moral decisions that persons make. This could be because my mother’s side of the family is Roman Catholic and I have always been influenced by many of their beliefs and moral behavior. Although when I really started to think about it I realized that even though they are pretty religious their moral values are really no different from my dad’s side of the family which isn’t religious at all. This got me thinking about the relationship between moral beliefs and religion to a greater extent. Thinking back I now wonder why I have always felt that religion and morals are so closely related. I wonder if it is all the movies about the good old days when families were “perfect”. These movies made you think that every family would go to church on Sunday, eat dinner together every night, and never say a bad word to anyone. Hollywood and even many politicians like to make us think that things were better in the 50’s when families were close, the woman stayed at home, and divorces were uncommon. Maybe in some ways things were better back then, but what about all the segregation and racial violence?

I think that religion and morals have very little, if any, relationship at all. I feel that moral values come from society and human kindness. The majority of people simply want to act in a good manner to others because it makes them feel good. There will always be a minority that doesn’t care about being nice to others but this has always been true no matter how prominent religion is at the time. Religious institutes do emphasize good moral behavior, and for this reason whenever religious persons act in a good way others think it is because of their religion. But maybe its just because they’re good people. What about those religious persons that act in a bad manner?

“The prevalence of widespread cheating at a predominantly conservative Christian university would seem to confirm the views of those who believe that religion, far from having a positive influence on personal moral conduct, is more likely to produce hypocrisy than honesty.” (Wolfe 153)

This really got me thinking about this relationship between religious institutions and morality. I can’t seem to come to a conclusion, only a few perspectives. In one way it seems that religion can only help moral beliefs and therefore is good in our society. In another way religion makes many hypocritical or even acts as a way for some to justify wrong doings. So is religion really beneficial to good moral behavior in our society?

Work Cited

Wolfe, Alan. The Transformation of American Religion: How We Actually Live Our Faith. New York: Free Press, 2003.

Informal post

Hello, my name is Cory Tefft. I was raised protestant as a kid but never really followed the religion to a great extent. Throughout different times and difficulties my faith has had its ups and downs. I'm unsure how much I understand my own faith and what I truely believe. The one thing I am sure of is that I like to believe there is some greater power watching over us and I hope there is a heaven of some sort after death. I believe that religion around the world has caused violence and death when practiced to an unreasonable extent. I look forward to this class and the ideas that will be discussed.

Cory Tefft