Elements Of The Enlightenment

Ted Cruz & Thomas Paine The 2016 Presidential Election may be the most important in our lifetime. We need to make sure we pick the best person for the job. I think the best candidate would be Ted Cruz because he has good ideas that will help our country get back on track. Then have Thomas Paine as our vp to help Cruz do what needs to get done.

When comparing documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and Thomas Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists, one must consider the dates on which they were drafted upon along with the current state of American government. These two points are necessary when determining the reasoning behind why each document was drafted. The Declaration of Independence was the first of these three documents to be written and was used to establish that the citizens of the United States of America were free from the rule of Great Britain. The second of these documents to be written was the U.S. Constitution. Many of the articles in the Constitution derived from the ideas of basic human rights that Thomas Jefferson expressed should

Religious liberty should be able for everyone and every religion should be able to impose their values on people who want to listen. No one should be able to control a delicate subject such as religion. Many people are with religious liberty such as Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan gave a speech on Religious Liberty in which he stated, “when you stand up for your values, when you assert your civil rights to vote and to participate fully in government, your defending our true heritage of religious liberty”, which shows how he encourages his people to stand up and assert your civil right on religious freedom. Ronald Reagan’s view on religious liberty is that it should be liberated for every religion to impose their beliefs and values on people who are willing to listen to them and that people have to stand up and fight for religious liberty because if not who will.

In the bill of rights a very important issue was addressed which is freedom of religion, press, speech, and assembly. United States of America’s citizen can practice any religion they believe. In concussion federalist were more concern about the common good and anti-federalist were more concern about the individual

“Liberty which is essential to its existence, the other, by giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests.” One of the many issues is the ability that religion

Locke’s ideas were used in the Declaration of Independence, explaining why Americans opposed British rule. The king of Britain did not acknowledge the rights of the colonists, and imposed taxes and formed new laws without the agreement from the colonists to do so. John Locke believed that the duty of a government is to protect the natural rights of the people. These natural rights were the rights to life, liberty, and property. If a government failed to protect those rights, the citizens would have the right to overthrow the government.

Enlightenment The enlightenment was a time in which leaders and philosophers promoted ideas during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that influenced people's thoughts concerning politics, social justice, human progress and religion forever. As said by Philosopher Immanuel Kant, “Enlightenment is defined as the upset of the established order/the awakening of one’s mind/forsaking society’s imposed mindset and establishing one for yourself.” (Document 12) These scientists like Issac Newton and writers like John Locke were challenging the old ways and because of that people became socially aware.

Locke believed that people were born with natural rights that included the right to life, liberty, and property. Locke argued that people formed governments to protect their natural rights, so the best kind of government was one with limited power and was accepted by all citizens. Locke said that a government has an obligation to the people it governs, therefore, the people have a right to revolt if the government fails at its obligations. Like many other Enlightenment philosophers, John Locke’s ideas reflected on the checks and balance system as well as the Declaration of Independence. For example, in the Declaration of Independence, it says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The First Amendment states that U.S. citizens have to right to freely express themselves in any and every way they choose. With this being said, religious freedom made a tremendous impact on society during this time. The Pilgrims and Protestants, ultimately known as Separatists, came to America to escape religious persecution and freely practice their beliefs while spreading the gospel. Today, this aspect of the First Amendment still attracts people to our country.

In the United States, the First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees freedom of religion. The founding fathers felt that this was extremely important because people came to America to escape religious persecution. It was passed on December 15, 1791, as one of te ten amendments that constitute the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights was written by James Madison, to provide greater constitutional protection for individual freedoms and limitiing the power of the

Locke’s beliefs that the government only has the right to govern if the people consent for it to do so is apparent in both The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the United States of America. The Declaration of Independence states: This is derived from Locke’s idea that Also, in Article I of The Constitution, a direct outline is provided to ensure the inclusion of a proper Representative of the states, to protect this philosophy. Both John Locke and the Founding Fathers stress the importance of the people dictating the government’s actions, not the opposite. Thus, the two basic ideals of the United States’ government- the right of the individual to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and the government existing only from the consent of the people- identically match those put forth in John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government, making John Locke one of the most influential philosophers in the founding of the United States of America.

In today 's society, religious freedom is the freedom of the individual or community to practice any religion they believe in. It was often misunderstood that American colonist were in search of religious liberty, but in reality groups such as the Puritans and Pilgrims who left Europe to escape religious persecution sought the liberty to practice their own faith and often were intolerant of religious diversity. During this time, religion and the government went hand and hand. These leaders of the church were also leaders in the government and would enforce strict religious observance. In the beginning of Colonial America, religion and the government were inseparable and often leaders like John Winthrop would persecute dissenters who didn 't

The first settlers in America came to the New World to seek religious liberty. Taking a risk, they began their treacherous journey to an unknown land in order to practice their own beliefs without limitation. Later in the narrative of the making of America, the founding fathers drafted a constitution-- a collection of laws and regulations which set up the government we still know and practice today. Arguably the most important part of the constitution, the first amendment, gives citizens the freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition. These freedoms have been the backbone of this great country for centuries, has set us apart from other nations, and has shaped the course of American history.

This means one religion can never dominate and overpower an entire country. Everyone has the freedom to join any religion. Another component that inspired the U.S Constitution authors was that it was against government control. In the United States Constitution we have three different branches of government. The three Branches are the Legislative, Judicial and Executive.

In terms of Enlightenment values, it is difficult to accept universalism and value for all the societies. There are local and tight values represented by traditions and when they come in conflict, universalism is abandoned, or there is what we call the localization of universalism. In Europe and in the United States, are accustomed to believe that the value system is not restricted to a certain region of the globe but applies globally and everywhere in the world, the moral universe of the West is characterized by a global ambition. This global ambition nevertheless, it would be more appropriate to use the plural instead of the singular, to speak not of one Enlightenment which is dedicated for the Western cultures, but of different Enlightenment.