Essay Example on Human Rights and Enlightenment

Human rights are perfectly and suitable virtues which give human beings the freedom to do a certain thing. These rights include the right to life, freedom from any restrictions, freedom of opinion and expression and the right to work and education. This essay tries to view what influence this enforcement or enlightenment of the mentioned rights. There are various factors which contributed to the enlightenment which shall be discussed in the essay. Some of the factors are said to rise from religion split from the Catholic faith to Protestants led by priest Martin Luther King.

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Firstly, the research tries to look at how protestant reformation led to enlightenment in human rights. Although different scholars try to argue that it is somehow inaccurate to conclude that the reformation led directly to the enlightenment. Due to the research carried out it is enough to say that it is from him that made people have the feeling of freedom towards many things. The freedom of religion is seen to come from the split from the Catholic faith. This rose from Luther's understanding of a certain bible verse which said "for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith" this is a clear indication of how the just should live by their faith, regardless of which faith.

Secondly, human rights enlightenment rose from the scientific world. The scientific world being talked about is the European nations like the French and America. This was due to the revolution in those days which led to emerging of the right to vote. This was emphasized to enhance democracy among the nations. This also led to upcoming rights like those of civil rights. Human right is also argued to be influenced by sciences and some other academic disciplines like the humanities and social sciences.

Furthermore, some philosophers came up with some rights from the natural law which later became international law. This right is the right to life; this came up naturally from the perspective of God's creation. This right is enforceable even to date. There are several questions which ask about the emergence of government regulations, but as from Thomas Hobbes, it can be said to have risen from the obligation to obey laws to make life possible. He suggested that without these regulations the nations could be disrupted by wars. Right to equality is also argued to have risen from enlightenment when philosophers began to challenge the ideas like a state religion.

Also, there are various theories which are said to contribute to human rights and enlightenment. These include; political theory, ethical theory, and religion in the enlightenment. Political theory is attributed to the success of politics towards the enlightenment era. This era is marked by various political revolutions, which include, English revolution, American Revolution and the French revolution. Religion has enforced various authority through beliefs or so-called myths and mystery. It is through this theory that ideas of freedom and equality came into realization though it could not lack some criticism.

Research has found that even the ethical theory is somehow grounded from religion. This is by trying to obey Gods law to see and enjoy the afterlife. Ethics can be defined as the doing of right according to the society one is based on. Although there are some violent religious wars, it is a clear indication of the failure of the involved religious doctrines concerning God and afterlife to establish a strong base for ethics. It is from this theory that moral justice came to enforcement due to proper grounding of ethical duties and understanding them.

The final theory which was back then reality is the religion and the enlightenment. It is from this where authority came to being since somebody took the authority to split his church from the Catholic faith. Some experts say that enlightenment is sometimes represented as the enemy of religion, though research argues that it is more correct to see it as critically directed against various characteristics of the religion. Research clearly shows that Christian beliefs in particular and controversy occupy a particularly central place in the enlightenment. In a different perspective, the rise of Protestantism in western Christianity plays a good role in generating the enlightenment.

Another point worth noting is that though the right to equality was established, it has not been enforced properly since after the French revolution, the legal status of women remained inferior to that of men even though women fight for it to date. Research shows that; women used the declaration of the rights of women in the year 1971 to address male chauvinism. Another inequality experienced is when homosexuals were granted rights among the Jews while in the United States considered it as a private matter.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this essay tries to look at how human rights came into being and their enlightenment. Although some causes influenced the human rights to be taken positive, others did not make the necessary contribution like earlier said about equality among women. This essay, therefore, recommends further enlightenment of human rights through research of other appropriate or efficient methods. The research also recommends a scrap of the legal enforced laws which are deemed unethical like the use of marijuana or other hard drugs. The legal ones but sounds ethical should remain and further be improved where necessary. This essay, therefore, tries to stand with the enlightenment of human rights from the era of Luther to that of French and English revolution.