Sunday, November 20, 2011

Which right is an example of an Enlightenment idea?

One right that people in Western societies take for granted (and one that is protected in the Bill of Rights to the United States Constitution) is religious freedom. While many rights, like trial by jury and various property rights, have their origins in English common law, the right to religious freedom was really first asserted during the Enlightenment. John Locke, in his "Letter on Religious Toleration," asserted that "care of souls is not committed to the civil magistrate," suggesting that religion was essentially a private matter, and that belief could not in any case be compelled. Voltaire, the celebrated philosopher, admired English society in no small part because religious minorities were permitted to exist there. He saw religious freedom as indispensable for civil order. The Preamble to the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, written by Thomas Jefferson, stated the Enlightened case for religious freedom more explicitly than had any previous work. Arguing that "Almighty God hath created the mind free," Jefferson asserted that religious freedom was a "natural right," inviolable by civil law. 

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