Changes in The Academic Conversation: Science and Progress

The legacy of the Scientific Revolution has had a tremendous impact on our culture, perhaps even greater than that of Europe. In creating a national identity out of the ideals of the Enlightenment we deemed ourselves the bearers of those ideals. Our founders, early historians, and others shaped public opinion and sentiment to convince ourselves of our own self-righteousness. Our declarations and constitutions reflect the desire to put the ideals of the Enlightenment into action; in order to form a cohesive union we needed to convince ourselves of our connection, even among many different religions, cultures, and backgrounds. To date, the ideas of progress, liberty and equality, both more in conflict that in cooperation, and those of self-reliance, and innovation have led us to believe in another absolutism. The ideals and ideas of the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution, respectively, have taken the place of the absolute belief in God and religion, we have traded the beliefs of the past for a certainty about progress and modernity. Our nation was born out of a desire to prove that not only was it expedient but virtuous. Today, our certainty about science, and political liberalism, and equality have become as embedded into our veins as religion once was. It motivates our thoughts about our lives, our view of ourselves vs. the world abroad, and our place in the universe.

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