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The Age of Reason: Tinkerers and Experimenters

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The Age of Reason: Tinkerers and Experimenters

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- Called themselves Rationalists
-  Rationalism is the belief that human beings arrive at truth by using reason.
-  Thrived in the american colonies
- The rationalists saw god differently

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-The puritans read the bible as the story of the creation, fall, wanderings, and rescue of the human race.
-The puritans Believed that the bible was the literal word of god. Reading the bible was a necessity for all puritans

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-The Puritans writings were a large part of developing American Literary Tradition.
-They helped found a society, and focused on not just business, but also the spirituality of it and the everyday world.

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-Started around 1560 and were "Christian Reformers" who saw the issues with the Catholic Church and tried to fix them
-They were persecuted in doing so

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-No one could really tell if you were saved or damned but there were two states you would be in. One where you were saved by god, and you could feel his grace
-Puritans had guessed that Adam and Eve had cursed them all but Jesus Christ was said to have come down to save certain people who were called the elect.
-So due to all of this, the Puritans behaved as best as possible so they can get into heaven.

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-To girls that started to test with magic in 1691 were punished with lesions on there skin and they felt like they were being choked by invisible hands so they went to trial with 3 other suspects.
-It ended up being one of the suspects Tituba and she confessed that there was a coven of witches in Massachusetts.

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-In 1721, a ship from the West Indies docked in Boston Harbor.
- For an addition to its cargo of sugar and molasses, the ship carried smallpox.
- This disease spread rapidly  as it disfigured victims and was often fatal.
-The outbreak in Boston was a major public health problem.
-The smallpox has been unknown in North America and the native people had no immunity to the virus.

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-Most pieces of literature, which was either practical or political, during this time were published in pamphlets
-Benjamin Franklin wrote his autobiography based on the Puritan impulse of self-examination

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-Deists found God through the form of the natural world. However, they thought God made it possible for all people at all times to discover natural laws.
-Deists believed that everyone was good because of their own gift and has the use of reason. They could use their gift to lead to good for others.

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-When the Europeans first arrived to what is now North America, many groups of people were already living here.
-These people were already organized into societies and communities, and their traditions still remain in our country.