hat differed a great deal from the observations that Aristotle had made. Though not attempting to change any spiritual ideas, these scientists allowed for an area of doubt in the spiritual dimension.Scientists began to describe the world using reductionism, breaking down every component part to explain it. Using this form of thinking, Hobbs asserted that only matter was real. Descartes shared this belief with Hobbs, but believed that humans must have a soul. He believed God must exist as the creator of matter, as the factor that makes the universe a reality. Challenging Descartes, another philosopher, Isaac Newton, asserted that God was the answer to the beginning of “real” motion, but all things involved relativity in time and space.Newton’s ideas did act as evidence to God’s existence in movement in some areas of the world, but because they gave power to matter they were used to construct an atheistic view of reality. Following Newton and Descartes, an extreme scientist by the name of Denis Diderot, through out the idea of God entirely; stating that it was not at all important to have a belief or disbelief in God. Another Atheistic thinker, d’Holbach, believed in matter as God. He believed that God was just an idea that was made up from nature’s laws personified. After all of the religious wars, and following thinkers such as Descartes, Hobbs and Diderot, people began to think more and more rationally. Pragmatism, not religion, was now the unifying force, in politics. The people were unified by the politics of the state. A belief in God is still apparent at this time, as it moves into the enlightenment period. Enlightenment thinkers did not reject belief in God, but they did believe that moral truths could exist apart from God. Basically, the individuals in the enlightenment period could have access to God through church but also could depend on rational evidence.This idea, that evi...
