In the eighteenth century, some Americans were attracted to the new philosophy known as the Enlightenment. This movement emphasized the use of reason to solve human problems instead of relying on blind faith. This idea expanded and many enlightened people were Deists. These Deists believed that God created the universe that is controlled by natural laws, while divine intervention is unreliable and scarce. But Deists believed in an afterlife but they did not believe in a god that responds to humans but a god who would punish and award people for their moral conduct.

Many Deists were the revolutionary leaders, for example Washington and Jefferson. During the Enlightenment, the philosopher John Locke wrote the Two Treaties of Government in which he declared that governments should follow natural laws based on the rights of the people. The Enlightenment was the movement that influenced the American Revolution. The educated Americans believed that reason was the torch in a world of ignorance. These ideas led up to the American Revolution since people saw the possibility of creating a new government based on the rational teachings of Locke.

The Enlightenment gave them hope that reasoning will solve any problem and because all men are created equal then the people can rule a country just as well as the British ministers. The Americans saw all the possibilities in field of science and the world changing around them, that they felt that a new country was possible. The colonists all lived through the Enlightenment, the colonists probably felt the support of others when they decided that they wanted to break away from England. This philosophical movement encouraged independent thought, society’s progress and resolving problems of the day to help all of humanity instead of just the rich. The Enlightenment emphasized the value of humans and the startling new discoveries seem to prove that everything is possible with human integrity. In addition, the philosophers focused on the treatment of humans.