The Enlightenment was a historical period in 18th century Europe that focused on thought. The people of the Enlightenment believed that reason could be used in addition to science to acquire knowledge. They used their reason to solve many different problems. According to them, their whole purpose was reason. Some people, however, would disagree. Church members would have claimed that the people of the Enlightenment thought too little of reason because the Enlightenment thinkers did not believe that reason could be used alongside religion. Previously, thinkers, such as Thomas Aquinas, who proved the existence of God, had no problem with using reason to explain things about the Biblical God. Because these people of the Enlightenment took nothing for granted until they could prove how or why something worked, thinkers of this era commonly sought to disprove old traditions. Rethinking old ideas, the men of the Enlightenment focused on the human capacity to think and reason.