Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Watching the History Channel

How did the Greeks and Romans cut rock and build obilisques 3x taller than the statue of liberty? How did they transport thousands of tons of stone hundreds of miles from quarries to construction sites (there are temples in Italy that have stones from 5 different locations around Africa and Spain!) Archeologists are not sure how they built them. They say the entire parthenon was built within ten years. They say that their cutting and placing was so detailed and precise that it is really better than what we have now. there is evidence of ancient cranes scattered all over the world. I wonder what our world would be like if the knowledge and technology of the antiquity had not been lost. Thank goodness things like writing and reading were not lost during the dark ages- thanks to monks mostly! Too bad the library at Alexandria burned down. But most of the population was illiterate and ideas and technologies were forgotten in western Europe after Rome fell to barbarians around 420 AD. The next industrial revolution did not come until late 1700s. Strange that the East kept its Science and math and literature and technology- they went from when they began in 3000BC to now with little interuption whereby the West lost everything for several generations and then, after 1/3 of the people died in the black plague, they high speed started back up and surpassed the rest of the world and now everywhere else has "westernized" themselves. I guess we managed to steal a lot from them. The romans stole their ideas from the greeks who stole form the phoenicians who stole from the pre-arabians. When western europe stole ship ideas from old norse/viking technology, they saw that other parts of the world have better prettier tastier things than they had and began trading. (well, the trade routes were what brought the bubonic plague so that part happened before it) It was the bubonic plague that changed the west's attitude and opened up more jobs for peasants who were eager to work their way up to by being entrepeneurs. This attitude comprised the roots of our capitalistic system and that is what made us westerners industrialize so darn fast and that is what has kept us ahead of other countries and that makes it even more unfortunate that we are turning socialist. Marx said it would happen now it is. :b. These arheologists are arguing that they may have had stone cutting mechanical saws. Geeze. And they may have had mass-producing workshops. They are arguing that they used waterwheels and cranks. They had already created Iron by then, they could have def used iron saws. wow. Water power was reinvented in England in the 19th century. lost technology. Steel came along in the 1800s and made us able to build the structures taht we build now. I am just curoius about how things would be different now if we had continued out technological advance from 420 on instead of restarting. I wonder if we would pollute less or abuse our resources just as much?
Christianity grew during the dark ages when everything else, particularly selfish ambition, was less attainable. Faith decreased around the time of the Rennaissance and Industrial Revolution. I am glad that Christianity grew and spread- I wonder if God arranged things purposely to establish the Catholic church as such a permanent world leader. It is sad, but more people come to God when life sucks than they do when htings are progessing. A man on an airplane told me once that the only reason christianity was so big in the dark ages was because kings and governments used it to keep the masses down. in convincing them that there was a conditional afterlife to work toward, then they would not complain or rebel as much one earth. And that they used it as an excuse to start wars. What do you think about that? I like Romans 1:8 and 16:24-26 better. Oh and Romans 1:15-18 "15It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. 16The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains.[a] 18But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice."

That was fun to type. I didn't expect to do that. Thanks or reading.

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