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__//**The Encyclopedia**//__

The //Encyclopedia: The Rational Dictionary of the Sciences, the Arts, and the Crafts//, or better known as the //Encyclopedia//, was published in the form of its first article during the year 1751 and was completed during 1765. The Encyclopedia consisted of ideas that praised science and industrial arts while at the same time questioned immortality and religion. The articles also criticized legal injustice and intolerance. It also emphasized the importance of human knowledge and how it can be even more expanded with the process of reasoning. Greater human knowledge not only would benefit human happiness, but would also make good use for economic, political, and social progress. However, the book was banned by the French government due to its controversial topics on atheism, the soul, and the blind people. It was eventually listed in the church’s index of forbidden works and the church pronounced excommunication to anyone who dared read it. Still, the //Encyclopedia// overall gave a new positive look towards the enlightenment and was widely read throughout Western Europe despite the church’s warning. McKay, John P, et al. __A History of Western Societies__. Boston, Massachusetts. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003. “philosophy.” Online. Internet. Google.