By John Jouh H. Ogwyn
W
hy is our world the way it is today? And where is it headed? In the last 100 years, the world has experienced dizzying technological progress, yet age-old scourges of war, famine and disease continue to plague mankind. But paradoxically, it is the affluent and “progressive” countries that have often seen the most dramatic unraveling of the very social fabric. While the 20th century was one of dramatic change, today’s world has been shaped by much more than the events of the last century. The truth is that ideas have consequences. Beliefs will ultimately take people places.
Sometimes, however, those places are quite unforeseen and quite unwelcome! There can scarcely be anything more important than understanding what and why is man. Are we part of some great cosmic plan or, are we merely the result of random chance? Ideas about man—his origins, his nature, his purpose, and his destiny—have been discussed for centuries. Our modern world has been shaped by certain beliefs that have been responses to these questions. What are those beliefs and from where have they come? Can you really prove and know the answers to questions such as these? It is important to examine
the fundamental ideas and beliefs that underlie our modern world and find out what is true and what is not!
The Coming of the Modern It was in the 1500s that the word “modern” found its way into the English language. The word originated as a late-Latin term meaning “of the present time.” It was used to contrast the rapidly changing 16th century with both the ancient world and the one that stood between then and “now,” the medieval world. The development of the modern world is really the story of how Nov.–Dec. 2000
© Tomorrow’s World Illustration-PhotoDisc/Corbis Images
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