The puritan religion is one that is hardly understood in today's world of
never-ending excuses and finger pointing. This is human nature at it's finest. Puritanism
probably couldn't make it today. In fact, it probably wouldn't have a chance. Today's
society would not be willing to make the sacrifices of chosen hardships to make the cut.
One of the most demanding religions, puritan belief forced its followers to change their
life in accordance to God's holy word, only to guess that he could possibly be one of the
elect. The puritan religion was based on five basic principles; supremacy of the divine
will, the depravity of man, election, free grace, and predestination. Each having a
distinct and overpowering effect on all who followed and basically scaring the living *censored*
out of people who did not. To live in the puritan society, a person had to play by the
puritan rules, or face banishment or even death.
The first major belief, and subject of great controversy, was the belief of the
supremacy of the divine will. Simply stated, everything that happened in the world was
because God wanted it that way. If God was pleased, good times came. If he wasn't
hardship and famine followed. Another possible explanation to hardships, though, was
that since god was good, unexplainable negatively impacting phenomenon that seemed to
be unheralded must be the work of something outside of God's realm. This is where not
only did the religion get tricky, but actually entered a sort of slippery slope. The Salem
witch trials are a prime example of this. Although the Bible states, "Judge not, lest ye be
judged", the puritans apparently did not believe this pertained to them, and if it did, they
felt they were justified in trying to preserve the "city on the hill". Although in theory this
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