The Restoration
...peech and press. Radical Quakers and Unitarians broke open old dogmas in ways that Voltaire was to find highly congenial when he found himself there in exile. The English and French Enlightenments exchanged influences through many channels, Voltaire not least among them. The enlightened understanding of human nature was one that emphasized the right to self-expression and human fulfillment, the right to think freely and express one's views publicly without censorship or fear of repression. Enlightened political thought expressed demands for equality and justice and for the legal changes needed to realize these goals. It was an age of reason based on faith, not an age of faith based on reason. The enlightenment spiritualized the principle of religious authority, humanized theological systems, and emancipated individuals from physical coercion. The central theme of the Enlightenment was the effort to humanize religion. Now the intention of the Enlightenment philosophers was not to destroy Christianity, but to take its "best" features, and focus in on that instead. English deism, however, was more pervasive in the Enlightenment. It emphasized an impersonal deity, natural religion and the common morality of all human beings. Deism was a logical outgrowth of scientific inquiry, rational faith in humanity, and the study of comparative religion. All religions could be reduced to worship God and a commonsense moral code. There was a universal natural religion. Deism is the belief in a God based on reason rather than faith. Deists emphasize the exclusive application of reason and personal experience to religious questions. Deism is concerned with those truths which humans ca...