In the American colonies before the Great Awakening, each colony existed as it's own unique territory with each having greatly contrasting ways of life and religion. Up until the Great Awakening, there had been no true force that served to unify all the colonies together under a single ideal or person. As the Great Awakening spread, it was truly a monumental force in the life of all people living in the colonies. The Eastern Coast, even including Puritan territory was ripe with people just waiting to get converted back into a moral, religious life. As the decline of morals in the Puritan areas and the sudden explosion of slavery began to happen, the Great Awakening could have came at no better time. Such important people as Jon Edwards and George Whitefield would come to lead the change of the general life of the colonists.
             Most people believe that the Great Awakening was one single event that just suddenly happened, which is far from the truth. The Great Awakening was rather a series of revival; most of which were short lived and turned out to be nothing. These revivals were quickly shut down because of the major influence the Enlightenment came to have on the people in the Colonies. The rational ideas of scientists such as Newton were in direct conflict with those of Christianity. Scientists believed that through knowledge gained through research, they could unlock secrets to our universe and ourselves, but the Christians believed that only God had all the knowledge of the universe, and only he could control someone's destiny. The belief that man could unlock the knowledge of the universe lessened the power of God in the eyes of those who believed in the rationalism. Scientists believed that religion was more based on simple humanistic morals rather then God having an emotional part in the life of each person. Although the Enlightenment ideas were important in the lives of many people, there were those who opposed them a...