Ethan Allen

When I was in school, I learned that Ethan Allen was a military leader, and that's about all.  This clip shows a different side of the man, and tells a lot about how influential the thinking of the enlightenment was in America during the 18th Century.

from:  Reason, The Only Oracle of Man

Allan believed that the universe was created by God, but beyond that there was little that could be known about the nature of God except what could be learned through the study of the natural world through science.
“In the circle of my acquaintance, (which has not been small,a) I have generally been denominated a Deist, the reality of which I never disputed, being conscious I an no Christian, except mere infant baptism make me one;.”
“The desire of knowledge has engaged the attention of the wise and curious among mankind in all ages which has been productive of extending the arts and sciences far and wide in the several quarters of the globe, and excited the contemplative to explore nature’s laws in a gradual series of improvement, until philosophy, astronomy, geography, and history, with many other branches of science, have arrived to a great degree of perfection.”
“An unjust composition never fails to contain error and falsehood. Therefore an unjust connection of ideas is not derived from nature, but from the imperfect composition of mind-. Disconnection of ideas is the same as misjudging, and has no positive existence, being merely a creature of the imagination; but nature and truth are real and uniform; and the rational mind by reasoning, discerns the uniformity, and is thereby enabled to make a just composition of ideas, which will stand the test of truth. But the fantastical illuminations of the credulous and superstitious part of mankind, proceed from weakness, and as far as they take place in the world subvert the religion of Reason, NATURE and TRUTH..”,

- Reason: The Only Oracle of Man