98 - Science, Technology, and the Birth of Modernism

A Short Walk through Our Long History

Well, look at that. We’re finally coming to the end of the 1800’s! Only two more episodes, then we’ll be in the 1900’s. It only took us 30 episodes to cover that 100 year period. I honestly have no idea how long it will take to cover the 1900’s, as I haven’t mapped that out yet. Guess I ought to get started on that, huh.

Next episode, I’ll review some of the history of the 1800’s, and take an overall look at how the events of the 1800’s shaped our modern world, but I felt like I needed to have a special episode just on the massive change in worldview that happened, particularly over the last half of the 1800’s. That change in worldview was the result of the western world moving from what could be called a mostly Christian worldview to the world embracing what we now call Modernism.

I’ll get into a bit of a definition of that in a minute, but first, I want to make the point that this change of worldview is huge. It’s a seismic shift of worldviews, perhaps the biggest shift in all of human history. The only other comparable shifts were the shift of the Roman Empire from paganism to Christianity, or maybe also the Middle Eastern and African shift from paganism to Islam. Those were big shifts, though they both took longer, and the process was perhaps a bit slower than the shift to modernism. And part of the story of modernism is exactly that - the pace of change. Things change over time, but in the modern era, things change much more quickly. It’s harder for any individual person to adapt, because things are changing so much faster.