The differences between the enlightenment and the great
awakening don't stop at the superficial aspects of both. They both influenced
completely different demographics. Mostly the elites adopted the enlightenment
while the great awakening influenced the more common people. It rather reminds me of how "Born Again Christian"
is a label given to only famous people and powerful personalities like former
president Bush, President Carter, Tom Hanks and hilariously Charlie Sheen. The later
seems to adopt the title out of some publicity scheme. Nevertheless, I don't know
the details but I have never met a person who claims to be a born again Christian
and I only heard the term on TV, which made me think it's reserved for famous
people. Back at the original comparison, even though both principles are
somehow noble and had great concepts that benefits humanity, they still have
some flaws. The great awakening breached to have no more slaves and called for
freedom and equality while the enlightenment had no problem with owning slaves.
The enlightenment sought out the improvement and the perfection of the human
society while the great awakening focused more on the revival of religion. The great
awakening didn’t pay much attention into science and education but it did help
building a better society by freeing slaves and giving women the right to vote
and participate in the society. We can observe a similar behavior these days where
the higher class focuses more on science and education while the lower class
tend to be more religious. However, back then the enlightenment and the
awakening seem to complement each other instead of going against each other. Unlike
today, where there is a constant debate on whom is right and which is better, Science
or religion. Personally, I don’t believe they should be separate and apparently,
people shared my view in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
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