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Nathaniel Austin

Professor Kimberly Lark

History 151

23 April 2017

Portfolio Reflection about Religion, Morals, and Traditions

History is everything. Without the past, there would be no future. The ideas of religion

and tradition is what our country was founded on. The pilgrims sailed here to get religious

freedom from the persecution of the Anglican Church. The Quakers settled in Pennsylvania

where they could practice their religion in peace. This great American country is the symbol of

religious freedom. Every day, we see people in other countries getting murdered for what they

believe in. We are the luckiest people in the world to live in this country where we can believe

whatever we want and not be afraid of being killed for that. The people we can thank for that are

in our past and have shaped our laws to protect those rights of religious and traditional freedom.

The Enlightenment ideas about religion led to the development of our American Constitution and

the modern-day significances of those ideas.

The Enlightenment including John Locke has shaped our values about religion, morals,

and tradition. John Locke created the ideas of life, liberty, and property which affect a lot of our

values today. In a time where people started to doubt the existence of a God, Locke provided the

ideals for a society where people can be free to worship God; free from people who would

hamper their religions and traditions (Module 6 3). John Locke contributed to many other

aspects of our society that we have today. In his Two Treatises of Government, Locke elaborated

on many different ideas about religion, morals, and traditions. In these, he talks about the divine

right of rulers and the rights of life, liberty, and property. All his ideas then went on to shape
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what we believe today. Most of his philosophies are common knowledge today and are cores of

many of our beliefs (History.com Staff 3). The Enlightenment and John Locke are directly

related to the shaping of our United States Constitution.

Our Constitution is unique to America and possesses some core values that other

countries do not have the luxury to possess. Everybody knows the first amendment to our United

States Constitution. We have the freedom of religion, the freedom of speech, the freedom of the

press, freedom to petition the government, and the freedom to assemble. Tradition, religion, and

morals are included in the freedom of religion, the freedom to assemble, and the freedom of

speech. The Anti-Federalists hated the idea of a strong central government and opposed the

Constitution. The Federalists wanted a strong central government and stronger state

governments. They also disagreed on a couple of other issues. But the main thing they wanted

was to protect the rights of the people. Not all the peoples rights were included in the

Constitution (Module 10 7). The solution was to create the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights is

the first 10 amendments to our Constitution. These were ideas that were considered in writing the

Constitution but were not included in the original draft. They were created to defend the rights of

the people. They are the things protecting our religions and traditions (Module 11 2). The

Constitution was created to defend the religious rights of the people and to give us the freedoms

that we are guaranteed as found out during the Enlightenment. But the reason we study history is

to find out how it applies to our lives today.

The study of history is vital if we want the wisdom of the past to apply to the future. But

what would history have to apply to religion, morals, and tradition? The answer is in religious

acceptance and tolerance. When people are asked why they should study history, they can never

think of a satisfactory answer. Collective memory helps us to learn about past scenarios and
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apply their outcomes to our own present day scenarios. This collective memory is how we can

know what to do and have the best outcome (McNeill 4). Religion and tradition are what makes

Americans unique among the different countries of the world. When we look back at the

Constitution and the Enlightenment, we see that the best way to make a peaceful society is to

keep religion neutral. We should not promote one religion, but also not limit any religion either.

When we look at different societies with different traditions and religions, we can see many

distinct aspects and opinions of the same event. When we take that information of that event and

the different perspectives, we can put together an idea of how to apply that to our lives (Ascd 1).

Some people would say that we can learn nothing from history because the present is so much

different. Although history did not have the technology or the society that we have, their

scenarios are still basically the same. When we look at past religious events, we have realized

that the only reason that those events are memorable is because a small group of people tried to

limit their freedom and hurt or kill them to keep them from practicing their rights. These

different religions and traditions help make America the melting pot that it is. Everybodys

societies are what makes them the greatest people on Earth. These people groups come together

to make America better (Hodges 9). There are a couple of things we can do to help make this

American society better.

This American society is created by different religions and traditions. We as people have

these religious rights granted to us by the Constitution and our undeniable human rights. Our part

to secure these religious freedoms is to be tolerant of other people groups and their beliefs. We

cannot hinder other people and what they believe in. Our job is to take history and use it to make

the best of modern day. History is a valuable resource and should always be taken for the

wisdom that it is. The Enlightenment gave us religious and traditional freedom just because we
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are human. John created the rights of life, liberty, and property. The Constitution also secure us

rights and freedom based on what we believe in. That is the beauty of America. We always have

the right to believe what we want to. And it is our job as American citizens to support that view

no matter what we believe or even if it is in opposition to what we believe in. History is a

valuable resource and we should be wise and use it to the full potential that it has. We can make

the future better if we just learn lessons from the past.

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Works Cited

Ascd. "What Can History Teach Us Today?" ASCD Express 6.22 - What Can History Teach Us

Today? N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2017.

History.com Staff. "John Locke." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 08 Feb.

2017.

Hodges, Blair. "Hodges- Final Essay, On Rhetorical Uses of History to Understand the

Present." Academia.edu. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2017.

McNeill, William H. "Why Study History?" Why Study History? (1985) | AHA. American

Historical Association, n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2017.

Schoolcraft History 151 Module. Module 6. Web. 21 Apr. 2017.

Schoolcraft History 151 Module. Module 10. Web. 21 Apr. 2017.

Schoolcraft History 151 Module. Module 11. Web. 21 Apr. 2017.