How did Enlightenment thinkers affect understandings of therelationship between the natural world and humans?

Enlightenment thinkers proposed new ideas regarding the relationship between the natural world and humans that led to a new understanding of the physical world. A key component of the Enlightenment was that the human world could be understood in the same way as the natural world; both the natural and  human world can be manipulated once understood. New thinkers used reason and rationality to understand their world. As far as religious doctrines were concerned, they were considered irrelevant regarding the human and physical world. Thinkers of the seventeenth century began to diverge away from religious reasoning and more towards using science and observation to understand the nature of humans. The scientific revolution and empiricism both supported the idea that human observation is an accurate indicator for future natural events, as well as the focus on questioning through science. Religious reasoning became second to science and natural laws.

Source:

http://www.csudh.edu/phenom_studies/western/lect_8.html

Video on Enlightenment: Intellectual and Social Revolution (and how observation moved from religious to scientific):


a painting depicting aspects of the scientific revolution
http://www.proprofs.com/flashcards/story.php?title=baroque-in-protestant-north--scientific-revolution

http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/the-american-enlightenment-intellectual-and-social-revolution.html#lesson

Smith, Bonnie G., Richard Von Glahn, and Kris E. Lane. Crossroads and Cultures: A History of the World's Peoples. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2012. Print.