"Dare to Think for Yourself" - The Motto of The Age of Enlightenment in Europe.

For about a hundred years prior to the French Revolution there was an era called "The Age of Enlightenment". It featured thinkers that started using the scientific method instead of Faith. John Locke had ideas that challenged Monarchy and The Catholic Church. He thought, maybe there could be a better way! So they invented democracy and freedom of Religion. Up until that time there were Kings that ruled the countries of Europe and peasants that supported them.

Many of the concepts that American Founding Fathers used to write The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution were created during the Age of Enlightenment.

Freedom of Religion allowed people to question the Catholic Church without being burned at the stake for being a witch...

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This is a different Enlightenment than the goal of Buddhist meditation... That's called Nirvana... Believe it or not Nirvana is more than just a Grunge Band from Seattle... Indians from India use that term to describe a mental state close to what The Buddha felt when he invented Buddhism, a Religion. Buddha himself was a Hindu. They believe in reincarnation... after you die you are born again into another body. Not a very likely scenario but that's what they believe. Really!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Locke