How Did Benjamin Franklin Contribute To The Enlightenment Era

The man on the $100 bill earned his place as one of the most important people in history and revolutionary philosophies. In the Enlightenment Era, people were beginning to question the notions that people had always accepted as the truth, and Benjamin Franklin was not an exception. As the worlds of politics and religion were rapidly changing, he took his own beliefs and what he knew about previous events to try to find the best government and the religion that satisfied him. As an old man, he also questioned his younger self’s views of slavery and began to oppose it on moral grounds after having found out more about economics and morality. In the end, he also composed a list of thirteen virtues that would help people become the best they could

As a young man, staying in his family’s chandlery business was too boring for Franklin, so he left home to become an apprentice to his older brother, a printer in Philadelphia, and in 1729 he bought the bankrupt Pennsylvania Gazette, turning it into a publication that many people read and made a lot of profit. While most people in that era were content with carrying on the family business, Franklin looking for something more. Not only was Franklin a printer, but he was also a writer, as he continually published the Poor Richard’s Almanack from 1732-1757. Not only was he a significant figure in the writing world, but he also earned his place as a prominent scientist and inventor due to his work with electricity and many practical inventions. As the American revolution started in the late 1700’s, Franklin became an influential diplomat and politician as he helped the Americans fight for their independence by gaining support from foreign allies and helping develop a new form of government that would satisfy as many people as possible. In the end, it was Franklin’s motivation to do something interesting and influential and his opinions and discoveries that made him the epitome of an Enlightenment man, questioning the things he already knew and experimenting to try to find the

When considering the ideal American government, he thought it should handle national protection and local governing power by being orderly and balanced. Franklin became a fierce advocate for Federalism and a strong advocate for religious freedom, believing that people should have the right to worship whichever religion they felt they belonged to. Franklin believed that the government should not control people’s religious beliefs; not only because people should have religious freedom, but also because he had seen religion cause conflicts that ultimately destroyed countries, and thought that giving people religious freedom would help prevent this. He also didn’t think that government should influence religion because he believed it couldn’t judge right from wrong when it came to religion. Franklin himself was a deist, but cared more about the values that religion taught than assigning himself to a specific religion, which was not something that most people of his time did. He believed that God is "all wise, all good, all powerful". Spiritually, Benjamin Franklin was more open-minded than most people in his era due to his scientific exploration and knowledge of