What new ideas did the Enlightenment bring to people?

The Enlightenment is a specific historical period in Europe, and it is the second great ideological emancipation movement in European history after the Renaissance. Enlightenment is to enlighten and inspire people's anti-feudal consciousness, bring light and hope to people who are still in the dark, oppose obscurantism, absolutism and religious superstition, break old traditional concepts and spread new ideas and concepts.

Enlightenment thinkers believe that an important reason why society is not progressing and people are ignorant and unfortunate is the spirit of religious forces ruling the people for a long time. In order to change this situation, enlightenment thinkers established rational and scientific authority. They claim that human reason is the yardstick to measure and judge everything; Things that do not conform to human reason have no right to exist, such as theology and Christian morality, and should be overthrown.

They advocate spreading scientific knowledge to enlighten people's minds, and believe that science with experience as the criterion for testing truth can make us understand nature correctly, increase our knowledge, get rid of superstition, and thus enhance human welfare. ② Oppose feudal autocracy and advocate democracy and legal system. Enlightenment thinkers believe that feudal autocracy stifles free thought, leading to social inequality and backward culture and economy. Therefore, they strongly advocate "natural human rights", advocate people's participation in politics, equality before the law, and advocate using laws to regulate people's behavior in order to end the unfortunate autocratic rule.