Puritans vs. Rationalists

Many things are different between the Rationalists and the Puritans. One of these things being that God chooses people to be saved and that God determines how things in the world happen. The Puritans think that God decides everything. The rationalists however seem to think that God left the world after he created and lets people decide how things happen.

Nowadays you might see that our political parties have Rationalist views as well as those of Puritan beliefs. A sort of Puritanism can be found through those who think a government or a deciding power must do everything for the people and make their decisions for them. A present time rationalist thought could simply be that the government should stay out of peoples’ affairs and that the people themselves should “experiment” with choices and see how the country turns out.

Benjamin Franklin is known to be a rationalist since he set out alone on his journey. His ideals and the virtues he follows show this rationalist point of view. He even set up virtues he would improve on as to better improve his life. He started with the virtue of temperance. He made it so that he and not God determined the way he lived. Even his definition of temperance, “Eat not to dullness. Drink not to elevation.” shows that he made his life what it is by guidelines and a plan.



To lead my life like Franklin would definitely be a difficult task. I couldn’t think of how he could have had that amount of discipline and not have crossed any obstacles along the way. Virtues, being hard to come up with, seem to be the same for everyone as to lead a good life without much conflict. I would have to say I would choose the same virtues as Franklin did, but I do know that I would have much more difficulty following them than he did.

Franklin, being a rationalist as Thomas Jefferson also was, probably had a good say in certain things when the Declaration of Independence was written. What I believe to be the most known line in the Declaration “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” shows plenty of rationalist thought.

First of all, the simple fact that all men were created equal definitely was not believed by Puritans. According to Puritan belief, only some men are chosen to go to Heaven. Rationalists believed quite the opposite. Also, when “…that they [men] are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…” is seen in the Declaration, it goes to show that Puritan thought is absent in this document.

Puritans believed that God only gave certain people rights and that others either had little or no rights compared to them. Rationalists saw obviously by the text that all men have the same rights and freedoms as each other. Even the whole Declaration can be seen as purely Rationalist thought. It is said throughout the document that the people of the United States are CHOOSING freedom instead of it being given to them by some higher power. Puritans believed only some people are CHOSEN to have freedom and that some are chosen to be thrown into hell.

All in all, the United Stated is greatly supported by Rationalist thought even to this day. The people of America believe to this day in choosing freedom and in the freedom and the choice of going to Heaven even. Yes, there most likely are still Puritan beliefs in today’s world, but Rationalist belief can greatly out show it.