God Arises
Argument for the Life Hereafter
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instance, embraced Christianity on a large scale
because it offered them a haven of bliss in the
afterlife. Had they not been slaves, they might have
remained polytheists and idolaters. It is felt then
that with the progress made in science, man will
certainly become happier and more prosperous and
that ultimately the concept of a second, better life
will die a natural death.
The history of science and technology over the last
four hundred years does not, however, bear this
out. Capitalism, an economic phenomenon which
went hand in hand with advances in technology,
caught up ordinary people in its grip, reducing
artisans and craftsmen to mere machine-minders
and diverted wealth away from the proletariat and
into the hands of the industrial barons. Men who
had once been proud of their skills became mere
labourers with no further control over their own
destinies and no hope of a better life in sight. “Das
Kapital” (capital) by Karl Marx, presents a
gruesome picture of the exploitation of the masses,
which took place in the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. It took one whole century of socialist
crusading before conditions took a turn for the
