How far is it true that madness before the enlightenment is understood Essay

How far is it true that madness before the enlightenment is understood in primarily religious terms - Essay Example This period was to see a great positive shift in tyranny, ignorance, superstition and to build a good reputation in the world (Macdonald, 1981). With this plan, the enlightenment had hereditary domination by aristocrats and religion as their sole targets. The logic behind the Enlightenment period is all about Christianity as far as religion is concerned. From Italy to England to France, this major vibrant religion had its ideas affect day-to-day lives of many. Ideally, there would not have been any form of enlightenment without Christianity. Churchmen almost had equal rights and powers as emperors and many other rulers that existed then with some privileges being exemption from paying taxes (J. Schmidt, 2007). Philosophers, thinkers and scholars like John Locke and Voltaire sparked the enlightenment. Other significant names during this period were Isaac Newton, who was a great physicist and later recognized as father of modern physics, and Baruch Spinoza. These are just but a few int ellectuals who saw religion as a â€Å"cage† that bared man from success and development. They also articulated scientific revolution, which would later spread overseas to the rest of the world (Jeremy Schmidt, 2007). Popularly known as the â€Å"Dark Ages,† this movement brought logical positivism to people. Life initially had been all about God and that the rupture is uncertain when the pure in heart would be live in Heaven forever. Because of this, intellects were to be the elites of their time as they acted sources of credible information (Allen, 2008). There was an overall rise in ideas based on empiricism and credible philosophy hence their application in a variety of areas like biology, physics, chemistry and political economy. All these theories attacked the church and the state directly. Christians today have the question of possibly knowing the truth as their main foundational philosophical challenge. The human mindset has taken two dimensions in our society today. Either one is of relativism or skepticism. Relativism is based on the statement that there is really no fixed truth. Skepticism on the other hand says the truth lives but we cannot know it (Midelfort, 1999). As preachers spread the word across the entire world, these two mindsets affect all the claims of truth for Christians of these days. Religious Perceptions about God Way back before Enlightenment God was like sunrise. Choosing the path of God was seen as a way of having all human questions answered and accompanied problems solved amicably. Christianity had its feet on the Bible as a way of knowing God. Bibles were Holy books from which people got the relevant knowledge they needed to stay close to their creator. The Old Testament was in its capacity a form of ‘constitution’ that had all solutions to political questions. Historical events were seen as a service to God’s will and they were understood to work according to God’s plan (Feld, 2011). S torms, floods and heavy rains were believed to be a form of â€Å"communication† from a supernatural being. Therefore, these events were not just chances. God was always involved ever since He created the world with everything in it many years before Christ with man being the highest level of His creation. Christ was the son of God who lived among the people, brought the Godly message, and later ascended to Heaven. To this there was a strong belief will be a last Judgment when Christ will return and few will be chosen for an eternal life. This, to some, made the

What caused the Great Depression of the 1930s What happened during the Essay

What caused the Great Depression of the 1930s What happened during the depression - Essay Example and during the crisis of the 1930’s, are still being debated today while the country suffers through a similar economic situation due to similar causes. Unfortunately most of what the government did then, as some would argue today, did little to help either people or business and only acted to make the situation worse. This paper examines what caused the Great Depression, its effects on the country and the results of the government’s reaction to it. Many things contributed to causing the Great Depression but there were two key reasons, the lack of financial oversight and the country’s wealth was unevenly distributed among its citizens. The 1920’s was a prosperous period for the country but a middle class, as we know it now, did not exist. Those with money kept the economy going due to their voracious consuming habits but when the rich slowed or stopped spending the economy followed suit. While businesses had significant productivity gains during the 1920’s, its employees shared a relatively small portion of the wealth they produced.   â€Å"Between 1923 and 1929, manufacturing output per person-hour increased by 32 percent, but workers’ wages grew by only 8 percent.† (Collazo, 2005). During this period, corporate profits rose by 65 percent and the government gave huge tax breaks to the wealthy allowing them to keep much of those profits. The Revenue Act of 1926 lowered the taxes of persons m aking $1 million per year by about 70 percent.    By 1929 the total earnings for the top one-tenth of one percent of American households was equal the bottom 42 percent.   The U.S. economy became more unstable as the income inequality grew. The health of the country’s economy depended on how much the rich spent but during the late 1920’s this very small portion of society began to decrease not only its spending but investment expenditures too which greased the wheels of the economic decline. â€Å"Since there were relatively few persons of great wealth, a