Ignorance In Bacon's The New Atlantis

In The New Atlantis, Bacon is able to express how humans are capable of ruling themselves and caring for themselves without the existence of a higher being. This concept is expanded upon by Hobbes through his emphasis on the relationship between the natural and the unnatural.
Hobbes states that men’s fear of the unknown that stems out of ignorance is the cause of their believing in a God. They desire answers and in Hobbes’ opinion, they created them to preserve their own sanity. They believe that there has to be a “First mover”(Hobbes 3). This is what God is to man. God is the “Eternal cause of all things”(Hobbes 3). Man, in Hobbes’ opinion stopped searching for the causes of other things. In this, he is saying that a belief in God or many gods stop humans from exploring, innovating, and allowing their curiosity to foster improvement in society. Believing in a god is therefore detrimental to humans based on Hobbes’ opinion. This builds on Bacons depiction of society without belief and reliance on God. Bacon shows that improvement is evident. One way this is shown is through innovation through the exploration in the form of the men, “That sail into foreign countries, under the names of other nations, who bring us the books, and abstracts, and patterns of experiments of all other parts”(Bacon 15). Hobbes even added onto this side through the notion

This correlates with Bacon’s interpretation of how science and human intelligence and curiosity create a great, powerful, and improving society. Science and the process of always attempting to expand knowledge is a key theme in Bacon’s work. He also shows that science is more successful when the scientist takes nature into consideration. Hobbes is able to connect to the natural aspect by describing man's nature and states that nature, “Governs the world” (Hobbes 1). He also discusses the laws of nature and the law of the