I read a very interesting article about the Great Pyramids recently. The full text is found on Yahoo News. Basically, though some investigation, some scientists have come to the conclusion that the Great Pyramid in Egypt is not made from limestone blocks quarried, dragged, and carved to the site, but were actually cast (like cement). Apparently however they cast these blocks so well done that it is extremely hard to tell them from natural limestone without the use of a Scanning Electron Microscope. There was even some indication of nanotechnology in the blocks!
Isn't it amazing how a "primitive" culture like the Egyptians 4,000 years ago could have had such technology? How could they have had cement, or the ability to lift such heavy stones so long ago? Honestly, is it really such a mystery that men 4,000 years ago were as smart as we are today, or even smarter? When you assume that we did not evolve, the "mystery" of the pyramids is not nearly as mysterious. I think it is very exciting to see how people really were smart back then. How they really were just as intelligent and human as we are. God gifted mankind with this will to create and learn and build. The Pyramids may not have been made to glorify Him, but they do exemplify how well He created us.
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It is amazing how much the evolutionary idea that man has progressed, not only in stature, but also in mental capabilities, permeates our culture and thoughts. In general, we "naturally" assume that those living in 4,000 BC were "primitive" in actions and in mind. However, there is more and more evidence being uncovered that these earlier civilizations, although not as technologically advanced, were still intelligent human beings that were advancing their era. Although the wheel is an old discovery, it must have first been discovered once, as it is with every discovery. Just think how "primitive" we shall be considered by those living 1,000 years from now.
When we observe that nations before ours were not as "technologically advanced" as modern ones, I sometimes wonder what we mean. The word “advanced” implies going forward, but whether your direction is forwards or backwards depends on your destination. Today we see physical comfort, wealth, and a large quantity of "stuff" as generally good. But some great civilizations have not. The ancient Athenians purposely avoided physical comfort because it dulls the mind and courage. In medieval times wealth was not the goal of the economy, because people took literally Christ's statement that one cannot serve "both God and Mammon." And while the Ancient Egyptians obviously built things to last (unlike us) they did not manufacture things in enormous quantities like we do.
I think our current technology is the result of three factors: accumulated knowledge, a value for material well-being, and scientific thinking. Scientific thinking is not necessarily good. As CS Lewis pointed out in The Abolition of Man, when we think of something merely from a quantitative perspective, we inevitable ignore a part of reality--the part that is not quantitative, but metaphysical. Hitler's eugenics were strictly scientific--they saw man in purely practical terms, and forgot his spiritual reality. Our own culture's huge cattle lots full of miserable animals, and labs full of living experiments are not much different in principle from Hitler, only in degree.
I noticed that the word primitive was used to describe the ancient Egyptians (my favorite historic culture). Yet, in my mind, how on earth could they ever be considered primitive? They made extrordinary mathematical advancements which we would have floundered scientifically without. They built the pyramids and ammassed great wealth, power and extrordinary knowledge of the stars and other intelectual subjects. I tend to think they were some of the most brilliant peoples who ever lived. Yet they are labeled "primitive" simply because they lived several thousand years ago. One of the definitions for primitive is simple. Yet under no circumstances was their culture simple. Just a thought.
People should read this.
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