Why didn't you quote any of the information under the "Religion" heading?
Because it proves that what I said was true?
" ...the central doctrines of the Enlightenment philosophers were
individual liberty and
religious tolerance, in opposition to an
absolute monarchy and the fixed dogmas of the
Roman Catholic Church. The Enlightenment was marked by an emphasis on the
scientific method and
reductionism, along with increased questioning of religious orthodoxy—an attitude captured by
Immanuel Kant's essay
Sapere aude (Dare to know).
[7] ......
...A number of novel ideas about religion developed with the Enlightenment, including
deism and talk of
atheism. According to
Thomas Paine, deism is the simple belief in
God the Creator, with no reference to the Bible or any other miraculous source. Instead, the deist relies solely on personal reason to guide his creed,
[71] which was eminently agreeable to many thinkers of the time.
[72] Atheism was much discussed, but there were few proponents. Wilson and Reill note: "In fact, very few enlightened intellectuals, even when they were vocal critics of Christianity, were true atheists. Rather, they were critics of orthodox belief, wedded rather to skepticism, deism, vitalism, or perhaps pantheism".
[73] Some followed Pierre Bayle and argued that atheists could indeed be moral men.
[74] Many others like Voltaire held that without belief in a God who punishes evil, the moral order of society was undermined. That is, since atheists gave themselves to no Supreme Authority and no law and had no fear of eternal consequences, they were far more likely to disrupt society.
[75] Bayle (1647–1706) observed that, in his day, "prudent persons will always maintain an appearance of [religion]," and he believed that even atheists could hold concepts of honor and go beyond their own self-interest to create and interact in society.
[76] Locke said that if there were no God and no divine law, the result would be moral anarchy: every individual "could have no law but his own will, no end but himself. He would be a god to himself, and the satisfaction of his own will the sole measure and end of all his actions."
[77]"
