4. The Age of Reason, or the 18th Century was a period of ideas that came through all of the Americas, altering how people thought about God, nature and society. For many Americans, the Enlightenment was a search for knowledge, ideas, and inventions to improve the life of humans. Benjamin Franklin was seen as an Enlightenment figure, as people saw his good reason and logic. The Enlightenment was helped start by the works of Newton and Locke, Voltaire and Hume. The great minds of the Enlightenment all shared the basic thought of, a benevolent God, having gave the universe, also gave human beings the power of reason to understand the complex workings of His creation. And that it was possible to get of perfection, but that it was humans fault
