I think of God

So why could the West once conquer the world? I could say that the splendid European civilization started in the Age of Discovery (though this naming itself shows their arrogance). Thanks to the 800 of conquest by Islam in Iberian Peninsula, Europe could acquire knowledge and skills to build big ships and navigate in the ocean. The land of Islam in Europe was the door to civilization then. And the Industrial Revolution occurred in the land of Europe in 19^th century, so why it happened?

There are necessary elements to make it happen such as cast iron and steam engine. But cast iron existed in China more than 2000 year ago and there was a kid’s toy with steam engine invented in Ancient Egypt. If you look at the maturity of civilization, the revolution could’ve occurred in China before Christ or in Ancient Egypt. However the Industrial Revolution occurred in Europe after 2 millenniums, why? Europeans are superior to other races?! No way. There would be reasons, but I’d say that Europe is merely the land where human knowledge and technologies gathered for it. 

I would define that Europe was a factory to polish raw ore of human knowledge and technology in history. Science was brushed up by the hands of Europeans since the Middle Age and made the Industrial Revolution possible. In my thoughts, “comparison” and “objective view” are the core components for science but it’s at odd in Christianity; you can’t be free from dogma and comparison is useless before Absolute God. So I’ve been wondering why Science flourished in Europe for a long time. And when a professor told me that Christianity made Europeans develop science, I was so surprised. The professor told me that when Europeans tried to prove absoluteness of God, they happened to find the path to science. My idea went the other way around. The desire to Absolute God led them to the Revolution. In Egypt and China, there was no such dogmatic Absolute God.

When you think about it, European culture and tradition like art, music, studies, food, festival, are all related to religious matters and rituals. And the state religion must have been Christianity to be admitted as a country in Europe and the word, “Romanize” meant “Christianize” and the words “modernize” and “civilize” were once synonyms of “Christianize”. So you can say that Europe was constructed by Christianity and Christianity was the engine for development of Europe. However sadly Europeans seem to be away from Christianity today and in France it seems to be even said, “God was dead.” Actually when I was in Bordeaux, France, I witness that churches were used for an art gallery and music hall, and even some churches were abandoned. Ironically enough, God helped Europeans develop Europe and God has been forgotten after the development of Europe. I wonder if God laments for the development of Europe. There is something you should not forget in life.

I think that God used to be the soil for Europeans and wonder if once people are away from soil, civilization would start declining. People can’t live without soil. Europeans are proud of Roman and Greek civilizations, but today they’re just ruins for tourists, because Gods of the civilizations have died with people of the civilizations. On the contrary, Shinto shrines and Buddhism temples are still alive in Japan and well-preserved by people living with Gods and gods. I wonder if people died and God follows or God dies and people follow; it’s “The chicken and the egg”. It is sure that the desire, sincerity, and devotion to God was the engine to modern science and God was the heart of European civilization. I hope that the West will make another revolution to lead the world to the new stage with righteous pride and fairness of splendid Europe. God is true to you if you are true to God.