Committing acts like genocide and colonialism in the name of humanist ideals is not better than doing the same thing in the name of Deities.
It is far too often touted as the golden age by the likes of white supremacists (covert and otherwise), logic pedants, and liberals (Yeah, I know, I repeated myself) for me to have any positive opinions on it.
I hate the values that it created, I hate how widespread they are, and I hate how rigid people are when it comes to the belief in "inherently good values".
I'm a big fan of the Romantic poets, who were of course pushing back against Enlightenment values. But I'm also a pretty rules-driven, abstract-thinking, "logical" kinda person, so I do feel like some of the pushback against trying to be "logical" or "rational" is a bit unwarranted.
I think the problem with "enlightened" STEMlord types is that they insist their views are merely based purely on logic without being aware of the ways in which their assumptions, values, experiences, and so on are affecting their views.
Overall, I think there are definitely some good ideas that came out of / are associated with the enlightenment, but also plenty of problems. But I'm not a philosopher or a historian so I can't comment in much detail.
The Enlightenment is one of many ways colonists have retconned the atrocities they've committed. Theft of "property", lives, ideas, and ultimately the erasure of the view of man's interdependence the rest of the ecosphere.
OdiousOutlaw wrote (edited )
Committing acts like genocide and colonialism in the name of humanist ideals is not better than doing the same thing in the name of Deities.
It is far too often touted as the golden age by the likes of white supremacists (covert and otherwise), logic pedants, and liberals (Yeah, I know, I repeated myself) for me to have any positive opinions on it.
I hate the values that it created, I hate how widespread they are, and I hate how rigid people are when it comes to the belief in "inherently good values".