The enlightenment was a time period in which intellectual elites rejected philosophical truths (whether or not this is bad is debated quite a bit), and used science and reason as a way of solving problematic matters. After the enlightenment the Idea of separation of church and state was also widely accepted. The most important thing to remember about the Enlightenment is that advances in sciences were made, and religion was beginning to be rejected. As to why the Enlightenment is considered to be a turning point in history is because major scientific studies and people came out of it. Francis Bacon, Johannes Kepler, and Galileo Galiliei, our most influential scientific men of all time lived during the early stages of the enlightenment, setting the stage for people sucuh as Isaac Newton.
