“Scholastic theories, like many others, are based on humankind being dictated by the church and religious ideologies.” (Bratton & Denham, 45) Throughout time and history, sociological theories and philosophies have been revisited, changed, and ‘perfected’. Theories can go through a progression of changes, some starting with a religious background, while others moved more towards a period of enlightenment. Before the idea of enlightenment, for many individuals, religion was the voice of reason. Religion provided those who needed it with a set of beliefs to help them through everyday life, where the idea of enlightenment challenges individual’s faith, placing their beliefs in the ability to reason for ones self. Enlightenment can be understood most commonly by its dramatic revolutions towards science, philosophy, society as well as politics. During the seventeen-century, those in the educated class adopted a secular idea to debate the nature of society, moving towards its desired direction (Bratton & Denham, 46). The social world was moving away from religion being the way …show more content…
That knowledge must rely on secure foundations of facts rather than beliefs. Enlightenment goes against religious theories, as does Descartes who proposed that individual’s problems were dependent on their prior and certain knowledge and belief in God. Descartes argued that, “all human knowledge depends on metaphysical knowledge of God.” (Bristow, 2010) Thinking rationally and being a rational human being relies heavily on the understanding of something greater, more reliable than ones faith in a biblical spirit. “Philosophy of enlightenment implies that the term refers to a desire for human action to be guided by rationality than by faith.” (Bratton & Denham,