Era Of Enlightenment Essay

During the 17th century Europe, citizens were governed by the church. Whatever the church declared to be true was law without question. No one dared question the authority of the church out of loyalty and fear of treason, which was sentenced to death in most cases. The church remained unquestioned up until The Era of Enlightenment. The Enlightenment was a philosophical and intellectual movement that transpired throughout Europe. During the Enlightenment, people began to turn to reasoning and logic for their main source of truth rather than religious dogma. The Era of Enlightenment began around the 18th century. The scientific revolution coincided with the Era of Enlightenment and both revolutions assisted each other. The Enlightenment first

This theory stated that Earth along with other satellites within our solar system orbited around the Sun. Originally, the Church, along with most everyone else, believed in geocentrism and that everything in the solar system revolves around the Earth. Nicolaus Copernicus’ book “On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, was banned in 1616. Heliocentrism not only defied religious dogma but proved the Catholic Church to be wrong. This created many problems for future Enlightenment thinkers that would follow in the footsteps of

His work criticized Catholic dogma, intolerance, and the French institution. One example of how Voltaire challenged the church was by showing people his version of a better or more ideal religion. He set up a conversation in his novel, Candide, between an old man and Candide in Eldorado. Candide asked about the old man’s priests and the old man replied that everyone was a priest and citizens don’t require anyone special to have a relationship with God. The Catholic Church had always been the only way to reach God but Voltaire suggested that the Church wasn’t necessary in order to be holy. Voltaire’s disobedience to French authorities landed him in prison multiple times throughout his