Why in the last 100 years do we have modern things.?

Question

Right around 1900 machines started being developed and the world has developed into what we have now. Even taking the christian view of 7,000 years, why did we not develope these things before?? If we had millions and billions of years as they say, Why didn't early man develope some kind of technology??
How can you say millions of years and in only 100 years space travel, cars, airplanes ect..
The book of Daniel says
Dan 12:4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

Knowledge certainly has increased in a very short time.. How do you explain it??

Answer 1

god wants it that way.

Answer 2

Key developments in the 19th century set us on this path. Automation means less people having to work and for a shorter amount of time. With all the free time people began to read books and newspapers, a habit they passed down to their children. More people began to go to college and the academic environment was suddenly filled with brilliant minds. Also, the stigma of religious persecution was removed from the sciences and so fields like physics were allowed to florish. The church has never been more weak than it is now. Eventually we'll begin to plateau unless there's another substantial leap in technology. Plateaus occur because the current technology is good enough that we don't feel the need to move forward.

In short, we've developed the way we have over the last century because the right advances in technology happened at the right time.

Answer 3

Wow, this is a hard one. Primarily, I think it is because western society started moving from the countryside into the cities, due to population explosion. Better healthcare advances of the 1800's meant more babies living and more adults living longer. Self sufficiency farming/small village living, where people made their own clothes and all of their food, and did business with small local merchants, like blacksmiths, could not support the excess population. With the demand for consumer goods by city dwellers with only one specialized skill outpacing the ability of individual craftsmen, methods of mass production came into demand. The man who could come up with the next advance became a rich man, so people sought out new technologies. It snowballed.

This, of course, created a viscious circle. The more mass production factories there were, the more people they needed to work. So more moved into the cities, raising demand for goods. Manufacturers wanted to expand their markets, so quicker & quicker means of transport were in demand. Before the mid-1800's to early 1900's, people didn't really need those things. Once they wanted, and therefore needed, them, it paid for people to develop them. So they did.

Answer 4

The more knowledge we have... the more we have to build upon in many different directions...

think of a tree...

at first it has just the trunk... but then the trunk grows branches...

then the branches grow branches... while the trunk is still growing and growing more branches...

when the tree is old... it has many branches that are long... and each is growing more branches...

Knowledge is similar... if you develop mathematics... as one branch of knowledge... you can develop it further... and you can use what you have learned to help other branches of knowledge grow too.

also...
the rotary printing press helped, see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_press

cheap printing and paper made books cheap enough for almost everyone to afford them.

Answer 5

Well, part of the problem was religiously oriented suppression of the people, especially in regard to scientific knowledge and study.

For every scientific discovery, we see an exponential increase in the technology of our society.

Answer 6

Before we had separation of church and state, The churches had much more influence and were allowed to murder scientists in the name of god.
The church new that science would lessen their control over people and as we see today they had good reason to fear science.
Now that people are no longer forced to attend church under the threat of death or prison, The scientists are able to do their work and we see the technology flourishing.

Answer 7

Swedenborg said the last judgement, war in heaven and rearrangement of heaven occured in about 1757. "The dark clouds were removed" in between man and heaven. Strangely enough, the beginning of the industrial revolution. Read Swedenborg's original writings/theology.

http://www.mechanicsburgnewchurch.org

Answer 8

The reason that we're slow developing "having modern things" is that for many religions questioning was sinful...even questioning things that weren't considered "matters of faith". That fact slowed human development by several millinea. PEACE!

Answer 9

Technology is more rapidly evolving primarily due to the discovery of electricity and electronic principles.

Answer 10

Remember the Pyramids, built by ancient man cannot be duplicated by modern man. Just remember!

Answer 11

We have modern things now, because of the meaning of the word modern. If we had modern things 200 years ago, they wouldn't be modern, technically.