Books/Gutenberg/Printing Press

Gutenberg has had a major impact on our society. I had finally made this realization during Mr. Miller's lecture on September 7, 2015. Without the creation of Gutenberg's printing press, our world would not be the same as we know it. Gutenberg's printing press had some lasting effects on the world. One of them was widespread literacy. Prior to the creation of the printing press, the only people who were literate in society were priests, royalty, and wealthy merchants, meaning the vast majority of society was illiterate. Books during this time period were far too expensive for the common man to buy. I can not imagine not having books at my disposal. Everyday I pick up a book I take it for granted. The printing press made books much more accessible, at a much cheaper price, which meant that the literacy rate raised. This also meant that the public had the ability to find and learn information for themselves. They no longer had to rely on the government officials to tell them information, because now they could read it for themselves. This meant that the government and the priests could no longer force feed their people only information they wanted them to know. Priests used to tell people that they had to pay for their sins, literally with a system called indulgences. I am really thankful , and glad that because of Gutenberg I can read and learn information for myself. I would hate to live in a world where the government can force feed me any information it wants me know, and that only. As Mr. Miller says "Education is power."

Even religion would not be the same, if there had been no printing press. If it had not been for the printing press we would probably all still be running around here Catholic and still paying indulgences. The printing enabled there to be more copies of bibles.This meant that someone other than the pope could read it. Finally. This enabled other people to speak out against the church. Through this, other branches of Christianity were born. This really intrigues me when I think of it, because that would mean that my own religion would not exist. This lesson overall really caught my interest. This personally had to be one of my favorite lectures so far out of the six lectures we have done thus far. The reason being, because when I think of how much this one person, and this one invention impacted my life, I am just at awe.