In the final chapters of The Age of Empire, Hobsbawm discusses art and science during this time period. This time period was extremely rich for science and art, especially physics. Plank had just formulated what would come to be known as quantum mechanics, and Einstein was publishing papers on relativity and quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics has led to many of the technological break throughs we have today, especially in the electronics industry. This point in time was very interesting from the perspective of a physicist because people thought that physics was a dying subject and that almost everything was known, but then an entirely new subject was discovered. I find this part extremely interesting and want to ask how big of an impact do you think these discoveries had on modern thought? and also how did these discoveries affect the way people view and accept religion? These chapters also discuss the transformation art took from being a high class luxury to something people in the middle class could afford and appreciate.
The next few chapters discuss the comings of World War I. This chapter helps to tie the nationalistic feelings and movement in the countries involve in the war and how this combined with patriotism caused many young man to take up arms and fight. This war had an extreme amount of casualties and is still one of the worst spectacles, along with World War II, of the human race. Do you think that there is any way these wars could have been prevented? or do you think that the world was doomed to eventually have a war on a global scale?
I think it is very interesting to look at science during this time period. It is also neat to see people's transition from religion to get answers to questions they don't understand to putting their faith in science for answers. Recently it seems as though more and more people are stepping away from religion and turning to science to solve problems. Do you think that there will ever be a time when human's do not need religion? or do you think its a necessary part of a society?
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I think there are so many people engrossed in it that even if some huge breakthrough came out and showed that all origins of religion are wrong or something like that - people would still believe in it. So I would have to say that its a necessary part of society just on the fact that it has existed during all aspects of history. What religions people believe in may change, but I think religions will always exist.
ReplyDeleteI find it difficult to imagine a society without religion. Though science/technology continues to advance and explain certain aspects of life, religion gives people something that is too intangible for science to resolve.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Lolia,it is hard for me to imagine a society without religion. Religion provides a sense of faith that would be difficult to find through science. I think that there are true believers that would never renounce their religion. Although science can answer many of our questions, I hope that religion will always exist.
ReplyDeleteI think the world does need religion to a certain extent, it does have some positive aspects. The sad thing is when religion clashes with science. For instance when Galileo saw the moons orbiting the planet Jupiter which the bible stated that everything rotated around the Earth. Religion should not get in the way of science. Another disturbing aspect of religion is when people kill one another in the name of god, that's just ludicrous!
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