The Enlightenment and Misrepresenting Religion

In many philosophies, to be enlightened means to have attained a superior mental or spiritual place. Professing atheists use it to claim that they are free from the bondage of religion, therefore, are superior to religious people. This in itself is fallacious and gives lie to their claim.

Misotheists even have a period in history called the Enlightenment (or Age of Reason). This was an intellectual movement that the philosophers of the time adored. Modern secularists say that religion held back scientific progress and brought in the falsely-named Dark Ages.

Storming of the Bastille, Anonymous, 1789

Enlightened atheists — alleged freethinkers — are making assumptions and spreading them as facts. The most egregious is that Christianity imprisons minds, but that's the opposite of the truth. Science was more of a curiosity than something useful for many years (nor did it have the worshipful status that Scientism has today). Nonetheless, the founders of scientific disciplines were generally theists and Christians, and there were several biblical creationists in the lot. There is no requirement for belief in materialism in order to conduct science. You savvy that, Pilgrim?

Know what is considered the end of the atheistic foolishness of the Enlightenment? The French Revolution and its Reign of Terror.

It seems to me that atheists misrepresent and even lie about the past (we have seen this far too frequently in their efforts to promote molecules-to-misotheist evolution). Consider that they bludgeon theists with things like the Galileo affair as well as false claims about the Middle Ages.

Then there is alchemy. Some secularists have gone past the talking points and actually looked at historical records. They see that falsehoods have been told from their camp, how Christianity has been good for science, and that despite some goofy philosophies among alchemists (some of which are claimed to exist today), those folks took scientific approaches to chemistry!

It’s a common myth that enlightenment atheists gave birth to the scientific era by casting off the darkness of the Christian middle ages and replacing magical arts like alchemy with the scientific experimental method. Historians of science know better.  A couple of recent articles help set the record straight.

Alchemy has long had a bad rap, but that is beginning to change. Professor Lawrence Princippe (Johns Hopkins University) has spent 30 years investigating the writings and experiments of alchemists, and has concluded that many of them were “real scientists” doing valid work in chemistry. Among the respectable practitioners were Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton.

Enlighten yourself by reading the rest of this interesting article from 2011, "Archive Classic: “Enlightenment” History of Science Being Rewritten."