Which "era" of the early modern period was the most revolutionary? Why?
What does it mean to be revolutionary? To be revolutionary, as defined by dictionary.com is to "introduce a radical change".1 The Scientific Revolution radically changed how people perceived the world. Thousands of discoveries were made and it showed people of the 17th century that there was much more to this planet. It emphasized reason and individualism. Ultimately, the Scientific Revolution challenged beliefs about nature and the external world. The Scientific Revolution was the most revolutionary era because the people separated from the Catholic Church, the idea of Enlightenment was formed, and the basis for modern science was created. The separation from the Catholic Church played a huge role on scientists in the 17th century. The church always abided to Aristotle's writings about the structure of the universe. The church believed in a geocentric universe, meaning the Earth was the center of everything. Nicolaus Copernicus was the first to come up with a heliocentric universe, meaning the sun was the center. The church did not like that these men were going against the church and exposing discoveries that did not correlate with the Catholic Church's beliefs. Galileo had a great deal of trouble with the church when he discovered more stars in the sky than mentioned in the bible or in Aristotle's findings. The church authorities claimed that Galileo had contradicted sacred truths and it went against the Christian scripture. The church believed that if human observation and reasoning seemed to say something different from the Holy Scripture than the human observation and reasoning must be wrong. Galileo and the Scientific Revolution argued that religious revelation was needed in order to learn the ultimate meaning of things. The age of Enlightenment led to a great deal of scientific advancement. It was a huge cultural movement of intellectuals