Humanism and the Humanistic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Humanism and the Humanistic - Essay Example On the other hand, humanism and humanistic in art refer to art that places the study of human nature as its primary interest. Additionally, its ideals are often secular (they are not religious). Learning and art in the Middle Ages (3rd to the 13th centuries) was mainly centered on religion and the church. However, people became more secular at the onset of the 14th century. Thus, they started thinking less and less about God, religion, and the church. As such, they commenced thinking more and more about themselves, their daily lives and surroundings. The study of medieval and ancient Roman and Greek writings on the government, art, philosophy and scientific matters partly influenced the development of humanism. When people and scholars commenced studying these writings in the Renaissance period, their focus and interests shifted from the traditional fields of study such as medicine, law, and religion. They, therefore, became interested in scientific fields and areas such as the natural world, astronomy, biology, and science. Artists, musicians, composers and writers now started creating and designing their work with themes that were not religious. Furthermore, to focus on t hemselves and their lives, writers authored memoirs and autobiographies about themselves while artists routinely signed their work. The emergence and rise of humanism can be naturally viewed in paintings that were done by artists during the Renaissance period. In the middle ages, before the rise of humanism, artists used to employ a hieratic scale that made saints or religious figures appear larger than the non-religious figures. As humanism grew, artists started making less important or ordinary figures be the same size as the religious figures. Moreover, saints or holy figures started looking more like common/ordinary people. Humanistic art in the Renaissance forced saints and religious figures to

Microscopes and telescopes. Our center of reality etc Essay

Microscopes and telescopes. Our center of reality etc - Essay Example Astronomers believe the reverse process will see the end of the world come to pass in the foreseeable future. With the present powerful microscopes and telescopes, space specialists have observed approaching stars that are believed to be the cause of the expected collapse of the universe (Burns, 162). The universe will undergo an ouroboros-like cycle since all scientific evidence hint an inevitable end by a â€Å"black hole† activity, which human beings cannot avert. In order to understand the concept of the black hole well, it is wise to have a detailed comprehension of evolution of the cosmos. This evolution is described satisfactorily by three theories explaining the origin of the universe; the Steady State Theory, the Big Bang Theory and the Pulsating Theory. Gammow and Le Maitre’s Big Bang Theory claims that the matter of the entire universe was once contained in a very hot and dense fireball. About 20 billion years back, a big bang occurred which marked the creati on of the universe. The matter from the 10^12 Kelvin hot fireball was accelerated in all directions, recollected and formed the stars and planets. Several galaxies that have been observed came from this process (Raine & Thomas, 92). The Steady State Theory developed by Fred Hoyle, Gold and Bondi claims new galaxies are created all the time in the outer space to take place of galaxies that cross their boundaries into the universe observable by the powerful telescopes of earth astronomers. As a result, the steady state of the universe is never disturbed. According to Pulsating theory, the universe contracts and expands alternately. As per the theory, the universe is currently undergoing an expansion. It postulates that the expansion will end and reverse processes of contraction begin. A disturbing contradiction to the common knowledge researchers have had about the universe has cropped up. The conventional ideas of evolution of the cosmos of interchanging expansion and contraction are challenged by current surveys by Type IA supernovas (Taylor, 74). Results of the survey have evidence that the cosmos will expand forever, without chances of contraction. What aggravates matters of eternal expansion is that the universe is expanding at an accelerated pace. The accelerated expansion is caused by an array of â€Å"antigravity† forces. The survey found out that about three-quarters of energy from the Big Bang Theory resides in the space, and not in form of matter. Having excess energy in the vacuum causes external pressures that accelerate expansion of the cosmos. Therefore, 70% of the universe energy is in the form of vacuum in the space, 25% is stored in black matter and the other 5% in the form of actual matter including galaxies, stars, protons and planets (Rau, 43). With this trend of evolution of the cosmos, the chief worry for astronomers is; what if the vacuum dumps all the energy it stores? Will there be another â€Å"Big Bang Theory† situation? Is the vacuum energy constant or is it changing with time? As these worries remain unsolved, the Black Hole reality hits cosmos existence. NASA telescopes have observed stars that are 10 times bigger than the sun in the outer galaxy approach the universe human beings occupy. It is speculated that the star of extremely large mass will collapse into a small ball. A â€Å"singularity†