The Puritans and The Rationalists

The Puritan’s
1. The Puritan’s truly believed that we were all born sinners and God had a chosen few who weren’t. They were better known as Pilgrim’s, and as we know they always dressed in black so what would this make them. They also had a strong believe that God was just holding on to us and would drop us in the pit of hell at anytime. I didn’t strongly agree with the belief of The Puritan’s because it seems as if they’d forgotten that they were wrong doers also, and shouldn’t judge the world. Their most not believable opinion was that God didn’t die for us all. The Puritans are some very unthankful people.
2. In the Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God, the Puritans had beliefs that we were all sinners in some way. In the movie at the beginning there were quotes about how God had chosen one’s of us who would be safe. They felt as if we didn’t have any good in us. I feel that these people are the real sinners who are looking down on us. The Puritan’s are the ones who should go to hell.
Then there were the ministers who preached about all of our sins and told stories of us going to hell. In the movie the minister talked about us being wrath, and that God would drop us into hell in any minute. I didn’t like this about t hem because they should be teaching the people good things and not bad. They lived life’s that were not suitable for anyone to live, but yet they judged others. The Puritan’s were big fakes in my opinion.
Since they always talked about we were chosen, in the Plymouth Plantation tells the Governor died of an unknown reason. It speaks of him complaining about his head the few days before he died, but the point is he just got sick and died. With that happening I think that The Puritan’s way of believing in things was not true and they should think of their way of living. To the Puritans with the Governor dying, he may had did something wrong to cause him a sin so God was punishing him by taking his life. In the paragraph that I read, it told that the Governor’s death caused a big pain in many of the people’s life, but the Puritans thought that God just chose him to be the next thrown into the pit of hell.
Shortly after the death of the Governor his wife died, because she was weak and couldn’t take his leaving her. The Puritan’s lifestyle may have had everyone thinking that when we died it was because we were being punished because we were sinners. I don’t like any of the signs that the Puritans put out to others. They felt as if they were left here to remind us all of our sins. The Puritans were the number one sinners in my point of view.

3. Total Depravity in the Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God is said that through Adam and Eve we all fall sinners. Meaning that because of their sins we suffer from them also. This is the concept of an Original Sin. Since this is the original sin for all humans, we all must pay for it. The Puritans didn’t think that we were perfect in any way.
In the movie, Jonathan Edwards quotes “we are all sinners, being held over the pit of hell by god, and can be dropped at any time. “ We can all be dropped into hell at anytime because of the sin that Adam and Eve committed and therefore we have to pay for that also. With him stating his quote it seems as if he’s saying that we’re all going to hell. Total depravity is affecting us all.
Unconditional Election is saying that God “saves” those he wishes- only a few are selected for salvation. This is an example in William Bradford’s Plymouth Plantation. This is a meaning that’s saying God only chose a few of us to be saved and the rest of us are sinners. In this belief not all of us are going to go to heaven but rather hell. This was strongly believed by the Puritans.
In a part of the Plymouth Plantation that I read, I found an example of unconditional election. This is what was said “Governor Mr. John Carver, who was working out in a field when he became sick, he complained greatly of his head hurting and he lay down and within a few hours he was dead.” In this example it would mean that he wasn’t one of God’s chosen few for salvation, but maybe he did something wrong to be a sinner and he died. Even though this isn’t a proven fact, this is what the Puritan’s would have believed. Just because the Governor died he wasn’t one of the perfect one’s that was saved.

The Rationalists
1. The Puritans and the Rationalists were different in many different ways. The Puritans believed that God didn’t die for all of us, but only for a chosen few and the rest of us were sinners because of Adam and Eve. When on the other hand the rationalists didn’t see life this way, they felt that life was run by natural laws and we all had to make the best out of our lives. The rationalists believed that anything was possible through science and everything wasn’t to be done by God. The Puritans didn’t believe this, they thought that humans shouldn’t do anything because we were already sinners and that would be interfering with God’s work. There was a big difference between the two.
a. An example of the differences between the Puritans and the Rationalists today, is abortion. Today if you were to have an abortion the Puritans would believe that it was God’s will for you to get rid of the baby, maybe because you did something wrong and you don’t need a baby. Where on the Rationalists side of view they would believe that a woman has the right to do whatever she pleases with her body and there are tests in science that can get rid of the baby before it’s too big.
2. Benjamin Franklin felt that he was arriving at Moral Perfection this is a good idea of a rationalist. In the text it read that “I wished to live without committing any fault at any time; I would conquer all that either natural inclination, custom, or company might lead me into.” This was showing a way of being a rationalist because he knew that he had to come up with a plan to reach this moral perfection and that he couldn’t let anything stop him.
Moral Perfection
1. Mind. Never loose your way, always stay focused
2. Spirit. Have high hopes and goals
3. Attitude. Learn to watch your tone of voice and words
4. Stride. Keep your head held high
5. Perfection. We all make mistakes, don’t give up
6. Accomplish. You can always reach your goals
7. Pride. Love yourself and your ways
8. Silence. Don’t let your words hurt others
9. Believe. Never tell yourself you can’t
10. Time. Lose no time for any reason
11. Pursue. Lead yourself to do good things
12. Challenge. Try harder things to achieve
13. Achieve. Complete everything you want in life

I feel that if I tried to do all of these things it would be possible to reach moral perfection. We all can change some things in our lives in some way or another, but the goal is to try. If you feel that you want to reach moral perfection you can’t start halfway and give up along the way. It’s not always easy to set new goals in our life’s to accomplish but we have to try. I know that if I worked really hard on al of these virtues that I came up with I would get them done.