It seems like the world is caught up in a time warp of superstition and hate and we have never really progressed very far toward choosing reason and enlightenment.
Political emancipation in the late 18th and early 19th century was an emancipation from bondage of feudal, tyrannical governance which enabled Jews in European society to finally enter universities, own land, become engaged in various new forms of work and commerce not before available or open to them. The Enlightenment also opened up ideas and brought to Jews (and others) the ideas of Kant, Montesquieu, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and it changed forever the intellectual life of the Jews. Traditional and medieval pre-modern views were problematic and no longer applicable or convenient nor congruous with modernity and progressive ideals. I can't imagine a world without the "Enlightenment," yet there are still some fundamentalist and intractable religious positions which have no tolerance for progress. Hank Roth POINTER: http://pnews.org/PhpWiki/index.php/ChoosingReason |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Worm Hole - http://pnews.org/ - http://up-yours.us ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
