Simple Life Ben Franklin example essay topic

Ben Franklin was a man who tried to live a very simple life by keeping no idle servants, a table that was plain and simple, and cheap furniture. It seems that from this description of such a simple life Ben Franklin could have been following the Puritan belief, that possessions were not important. However, Franklin did not attend Church as compared to a Puritan devotee and his beliefs and opinions about the human race differed from those of the Puritan belief. Ben Franklin believed that there is a God, and the most acceptable Service of God was the doing good to Man, that our souls are immortal, and that all crime will be punished and virtue rewarded either here or hereafter.

He believes that God does good to all of his people, and that we are not all being held up by God's hand from the fiery pit of hell. Franklin believes that our souls will live on, instead of the Puritan belief that they will return to God because our souls are in his possession. He also believes that virtue will be rewarded, but in the Puritan belief no one is rewarded because we are all doing the work of God and we are all doomed from the beginning of our birth. Ben Franklin wanted to live life without committing a fault and in order to achieve such goal of moral perfection he made up rules and standards for himself.

He believed that the goodness of man could be molded into perfection, while the Puritans on the other hand believed that man is not at all good because only the creatures that serve God are good. Franklin believed that he should pray to God because he was the Fountain of Wisdom, and because he believed it to be necessary to solicit God's assistance in attaining wisdom. In contrast, Puritans believed that man should pray to god in order to ask for forgiveness for one's sins and not to ask for help in attaining wisdom. Franklin also determined that if you wanted something you would need to work at it, instead of giving up and settling for what you already possess. The Puritans believed that God gives man everything, so one should not take anything for granted nor be greedy and ask for more than what God has allotted for him.

Franklin thought that poor people had the potential to become rich if they worked hard and had the qualities of probity and integrity within them. The Puritans held the notion that no man could be able to change his status because the poor people were poor and the rich people were rich. Ben was more willing to accept the fact that his opinions were not always right or wrong. Some theories could be determined, right or wrong, by listening to an opposing side of the story, while other ideas just needed more evidence to support it.

The Puritans thought that everything happened because of Gods interference, this was their theory for everything that had happened to them and for life itself. The Puritans and Benjamin Franklin had different ideas about humans and life, but their conflicting ideas both have one thing in common, and that is God. In sum, Ben Franklin religion was derived from the Puritan religion, but it was mostly independent of sanctioned religion. Self-perfection, self-betterment, individualism, and better society would make a society unified. In Ben's philosophy education was truly important, as well as efficiency, progress, advancement, discovery, formal education. Such means would curb ones instincts to better get along with others.

In contrast, the Puritan religion is one of strict morals and standards dependent on praying, attendance at church, and complete devotion to God in order to alleviate ones sins. From this comparison of both philosophy we can determine that there is truly a supreme being that controls what happens in our lives, but is our fate predetermined or can we shape our own destiny?