Quiz 2 US History 144

Name a significant change that came about due to the Second Great Awakening? Why was it significant (pp. 179-182)

A very significant change that came about from the Second Great Awakening is the many new religions that came about from it. One especially interesting to me is the transcendentalists. The transcendentalists believed that subsequent truths were to complicated for the human mind to grasp. Due to this, they looked towards themselves to try and comprehend how to better improve the human mind. This is significant because it is a time that we see a group of people looking towards themselves instead of looking to God.

Why was Lord Baltimore given the Maryland charter? Why was the Toleration Act of 1649 passed? Did it settle anything?

Lord Baltimore was given the Maryland charter to end a religious problem, but also because of his prominent role as an English Catholic. The dispute was between Catholics and Protestants. Protestants were opposed to Catholic rule in Maryland. To protect his fellow Catholics, Lord Baltimore attempted to stop the disputes by establishing the Toleration Act of 1649. This gave the colonists of Maryland freedom of worship. According to Shultz (2014, p. 36), this did not stop the disputes, but did keep both Catholics and Protestants from being imprisoned because of their faith.

Why was Rhode Island founded? Some of the early colonies had an official religion, did Rhode Island? (pp. 39-40)

Rhode Island was founded because of a man named Roger Williams and his group of followers. These people believed that politics and the church should be completely separate from each other. Due to Williams belief he was banned from Massachusetts because he contradicted Puritan beliefs. He traveled to Rhode Island with his very small group of followers and they founded the town of Providence in Rhode Island. Other groups of people who disagreed with Puritan teachings came to Rhode Island as well and began their own towns in Rhode Island. Due to this, Rhode Island did not have an official religion of that colony like most other colonies. They followed the rules of religious and political freedom.

Why was Social Darwinism and eugenics embraced by many in American society? (p. 336, 346)

Social Darwinism was embraced by so many American people because it used the phrase, "survival of the fittest". Through this it allowed people to be racist against many different groups of people. Eugenics was embraced by Americans because it prohibited people who were not considered healthy, otherwise known as "survival of the fittest", from having children. Some states even began to make laws dealing with sterilization of certain types of criminals or mentally ill people.

What was an "Old Light" and a "New Light"? What was the most fundamental difference between the two? (pp. 72-73)

The "Old Lights" were against emotionalism in their faith. They found emotional behavior to be unexceptable. They also were for a more realistic theology. On the contrary, the "New Lights" encouraged evangelism, prayer and equality. The most fundamental difference was that the "Old Lights" wanted Christianity to remain the same while the "New Lights" wanted change and growth.

If you had to pick one thing, what do you believe Enlightenment thinkers valued the most and why? (lecture and p. 71)

The Enlightenment thinkers valued religion the most and I think this is proven because they established educational systems in order to have properly trained ministers. The first college in America which was Harvard was founded due to the importance of having well trained religious leaders. This is what started our educational systems people valued religious reasoning the most.

Revolutionary philosophers helped unify the angry masses and Thomas Paine is one of my favorites! His most famous work, Common Sense, greatly influenced the colonists. Read this short summary on him. How did he influence the dissatisfied colonists?

Thomas Paine was widely accepted by the colonists. His 47 page pamphlet was purchased over 500,000 times! He spoke of European rhetoric and encouraged breaking free from Europe and the British rule. The colonists became fired up by this talk and started the spark of revolution. Paine demanded that America breaks away from the monster, Europe.

What is a key difference between the beliefs of Transcendentalists and most Christians? (p. 181, you can also read Thoreau's Walden, which I recommend)

Transcendentalists believed that final truths were way beyond the grasp of human beings. This is where the name transcendentalists came from because they believed that these truths transcended the capacity of comprehension in the human mind. This is very different than Christians because transcendentalists were more focused on themselves. They wanted to find how to enhance the lives of humans.