Innovators of the Enlightenment: Illuminating the Path of Science and Freedom

🌍 The Age of Enlightenment in 17th century Europe brought about significant changes, including the expansion of freedoms and the rise of science and technology.

🔬 Isaac Newton, a key figure of the Enlightenment, challenged blind faith and introduced the concept of acquiring knowledge through observation and universal rules.

🍏 Newton's discovery of gravity revolutionized understanding of the natural world, demonstrating the existence of invisible rules that govern the universe.

🌞 The Enlightenment was characterized by the contrast between light and darkness, representing knowledge and mystery respectively.

🔬 The Royal Society, the world's first scientific association, believed in the truth of the Bible but also acknowledged the book of Nature as a second source of knowledge.

🌈 Isaac Newton's experiment with a prism demonstrated that the colors in the spectrum come from light itself, which empowered ordinary people with the ability to use scientific knowledge and challenge traditional authority.

📚 Volare found freedom of speech and the pen in England through limited monarchy and political representation.

💡 Paris was a hub of prosperity and excitement, attracting ambitious young men like Dennis Dero who contributed to the Enlightenment with the first encyclopedia.

🔍 Dero's encyclopedic project aimed to include not only philosophy and ideas, but also practical knowledge and skills from ordinary people.

📚 Dero and his colleagues spent 26 years creating the Encycloped, a 28-volume book with 20 million words that aimed to bring knowledge to ordinary people.

🔥 The church and the pope condemned the Encycloped, and it was banned for a number of years. However, the controversy surrounding the book helped in publicizing it and sparked a publishing boom.

⚖️ In Portugal, the fight between Enlightenment ideas and religion was intense. The devastating Lisbon earthquake of 1755 had wider effects, challenging the authority of the Catholic church.

📜 The people of Lisbon experienced a devastating natural disaster and questioned the role of the Church in explaining it.

🏙️ Marquis de Pombal saw an opportunity to rebuild and modernize the city of Lisbon based on Enlightenment ideas and reduce the power of the Church and aristocracy.

💡 Pombal used scientific principles and practical skills to transform Lisbon, incorporating classical architecture, advanced technologies, and improved living conditions.

🏛️ The success of pom bal's rebuilding project brought about social change and challenged the power of the church.

⚖️ Pombal used his power to bring the Enlightenment to Portugal, freeing people from the church's influence.

🌍 The industrial revolution in England was already underway, driven by mass production and the triumph of meritocracy.

Darwin's exploration of the deep caverns revealed fossilized shells, indicating that the Earth was in constant motion and millions of years old.

Darwin's observation of bacteria multiplying without any outside help led him to believe that life could have originated in warm oceans.

Erasmus Darwin's theory challenged the church's beliefs about the origins of life and marked a significant shift towards science displacing God's role in the universe.