The Last Laugh on the Age of Reason

Joshua, yes, it is harder and harder to know what to believe. At one time, people believed they could create heaven on earth if we had enough scientific information. These people were the "philosophes" of the Englightenment, or Age or Reason, which emerged in the 1700s. This resulted in the creation of the world's first encyclopedias to capture and catalog information. Thomas Jefferson was part of this rational, scientific movement.

The delicious irony is today we have scientific information galore, and the Internet is an encyclopedia that the "philosophes" could never imagine! Yet, the more scientific information we discover, create, and publish, the harder and harder it is to describe reality in order to take realistic actions.

In short, the last laugh is on the Enlightenment, or Age of Reason. Scientific information is not enough to create heaven on earth. See Carl Becker's The Heavenly City of the 18th Century Philosophers for a detailed analysis of this "last laugh."