The Age of Reason; this is what the eighteenth century is often refereed to. It was called the Age of Reason because people were interested in logic. Being concerned with logic, people began to loose faith in religions that said humans were evil by nature and only a chosen few would be going to heaven. Moreover, people didn't want to believe in a religion that didn't make sense to them; from that fact sprang Deism. Deism was the belief that God is perfect and humans could also be perfect but only through bettering themselves (ex. a good education). Deists also believed that God, after creating the universe and man, went away and had nothing more to do with earth; this meaning the bible was just a book, Jesus was just a man, and there was no heaven or hell since God was not available for judgment. Some Deists couldn't believe that there was no heaven or hell and that when one died, one died so they believed that when one died God could judge them; this is because of their Christian background. Benjamin Franklin was born in 1706 and died in 1790; most of his life, he lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Benjamin Franklin was a Deist. He believed that through hard work and a good education one could achieve perfection. He wrote many things that have influences of his beliefs. One knows Benjamin Franklin was a Deist because there are proofs of Deist beliefs in "A Witch Trial at Mount Holly ", The Autobiography, and the aphorisms he wrote; all of which he wrote.
             During this time period, witch trials were not uncommon. In one instance, Ben Franklin had to write an article on a witch trial in Mount Holly, New Jersey. In a witch trial the accused were weighed against a huge bible; it was believed that the word of God could out weigh an "evil" being. Late in the trial, the accused were stripped, had their hands tried behind their back, and were thrown in water; if they were a witch they floated, if they were not, they drowned. In this partic...