How Culture is Affected by Media, Art, Religion, and Technology

Culture and Media, Art, Religion and Technology
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Culture refers to the way of life of a people, community, or society in a particular time. This paper articulates culture as a central idea and how it has been affected by the media, religion, art, and technology as illustrated by different scholars. 
The Effect of Art on Culture
The book, The Alphabet Versus the Goddess, presents how the alphabetic culture killed a person. The writer presents that establishing a deity without an image barred people from imagining and creating their own images of the goddesses they believed in. Christianity created a God that could only be read about, imagined, or written about. Moreover, the book argues that the scribed laws, known as the Ten Commandments, invalidated any images of the supreme deity to the point that art is seen as blasphemy and is the worst sin as stated in the Ten Commandments. The bible, for instance, says in the first four commandments that the imageless God is the only God while the law about murder is placed as the fifth. Therefore, Shlain's argument portends that Christianity sees art as a sin greater than murder (Shlain, 2008).
Even in the biblical stories in the Old Testament, there are instances when people wanted to see, not feel the presence of God. This indicated a shift from the cultural spirit of God to the need for a presence of a deity. For instance, the book, The Alphabet Versus the Goddess, highlights the biblical story of when Moses opened the Ten Commandments before the people of Israel. They trembled to know that they were in the presence of a deity. But to their amazement, this did not contain any likeness of a god. On the ark were written words, and for the first time, the Israelites were expected to adhere to the words of the deity and not its image (Shlain, 2008). 
Also, the Ten Commandments needed Israelites to read the laws instead of the traditional way of worshiping that required them to gaze at the deity. This was another shift of culture that the art of writing brought. Reading of the Torah has been one of the sacred practices of the Jews. Reading about the deity instead of gazing at it became such a radical break from the past events where people would stare at bronze serpents like that of Mosses' rod (Shlain, 2008).This break from the cultural way the Israelites used to gaze at the deity during worship to read about the deity made them start creating images with supernatural powers, diorite statues, totem poles, and fertility amulets. This is because they wanted a god that they could see. 
Though the sectarian prejudice of the Israelites stood in sharp contrast with other religions of that time, they were now joining the bandwagon of religions that worshiped idols. The Egyptians who had interacted with Israelites who did not have images to worship started to practice Polytheism, worshiping many gods. They had local gods, national gods, personal gods, and family gods. They shifted to polytheism, and people respected the God of others as they later respected the formers god in return. And due to the interaction of cultures, different religions sampled gods from different cultures (Shlain, 2008).
In the modern era, the book, The Alphabet Versus the Goddess, shapes certain issues surrounding patriarchy, alphabet, goddess, Christianity, and religion in general. However, in his arguments, the author fails to explain in detail the contrasting issues about the notion driven in the book. For instance, the writer explains that alphabets were used to eliminate the goddess. Moreover, Shlain presents that the alphabetic culture is more leaned towards imposing their culture on other people. This perspective is supported by numerous things like the Christian culture that Western colonies imposed on their colonies like most African countries and cultures (Shlain, 2008). 
However, Shlain ignored the role of modern Hinduism on the rise of the alphabet culture. In Modern Hindu culture, goddesses are highly revered and respected. For example, in the Hinduism sect Shaktism, Devi is the most respected and revered goddess and is believed to be the supreme and powerful being. Also, apart from religious matters, Indians are thought to be some of the most patriarchal communities in the world. And though it has always been thought out that goddesses were symbols of feminism, Shaktism proves otherwise that the existence of goddesses in a community does not symbolize femininity (Shlain, 2008).
Another case of culture shift is seen in Buddhism. In the early days of Buddhism, Brahmin priests witnessed a rapid defection of many Buddhist to the religion through the written law as imposed by the Manu Code. Before the written law, not many people joined Buddhism because many did not know they're born of contention. Through the written law, people learned about the Buddhism themes of equality and universal love; it became more likable than the Hindu religion. In the end, Buddhism became preferable as it achieved nirvana. Notably, the alphabet, the writing, and printing events shifted Buddhism from an alien religion to an acceptable religion among people (Shlain, 2008).
The Effect of Print Technology on the Christian Culture
In Andrew Pettegree’s book entitled “Brand Luther: How an Unheralded Monk Turned His Small Town into a Center of Publishing, Made Himself the Most Famous Man in Europe--and Started the Protestant Reformation,” he details how a monk became a best-seller. In some parts of the book, Luther conveyed his ideas in vernacular so that non-clerics could read the Bible and study theology to understand. Luther aimed to show the injustices that the Catholic Church committed. Brand Luther illustrates how an individual instituted changes to the Catholic Church (Pettegree, 2015). 
From the book, we denote that Brand Luther turned Wittenberg, the town where he grew, into a bee-hive of the Christian printing and reformation movement. Luther participated in all the printing activities. He also started printing pamphlets for the Germans and in Latin for royalty and scholars. That let him reached more people with the Christian messages that he created (Pettegree, 2015).
Luther used his writing to expose the injustices that happened in the Catholic Church. He used his publishing skills as well as the resources to attain his aim. Pamphlet style of printing religious materials spread through Europe, such that even today, Christian Churches use prints and pamphlets to spread God’s word. In the book, we denote that Luther was so passionate about God and moved with spreading the gospel even in the face of challenges. Also, Luther’s quest to help the people of Wittenberg made him one of the most sought-after communicators (Pettegree, 2015).
Through his writing jobs, Luther responded to criticisms of Churches in regards to his 95-page thesis. Through his writings, Luther exposed injustices in the Catholic Church and judge them. He became a trusted source of information who strived to make his previous publication better than the following. As a result, through Luther’s print works, he was set aside from other writers, as his literary works set people on the reformation path as planned by God. Luther showed that one could use the printing press to create a brand. In a nutshell, Andrew Pettegree’s book presents Martin Luther’s role in the reformation of Christianity and theological works (Pettegree, 2015).
The Effect of Religion on Culture
In the book Catholicism, Protestantism, and Capitalism, Fanfani, the writer, pursues two aspects of religion, namely Protestantism and Catholicism about capitalism. According to the writer, capitalistic order is a logical order, and Catholicism is a supernatural order. Catholicism has affected capitalism as a political culture in that it tended to change the individualistic and utilitarian outcomes of capitalism and emphasizes the social ideals of Catholicism. The book, therefore, indicates that Catholicism and capitalism ideals are incompatible hence a clash of cultures (Fanfani, 1935). 
Catholicism clashed with capitalism because while the former focused on the masses, capitalism was more inclined to individualism. Secondly, the writer opines that “Catholic corporatism” was viewed as an alternative to socialism and capitalism. This is because corporatism was more concerned with organizing communities into guild associations or corporate groups. In addition, unlike capitalism, Catholicism focused on equality and social justice (Fanfani, 1935).
The writer argues that the inclination of Catholicism to social justice affected capitalism because the latter was more focused on profit. At the same time, the needs of people do not exclusively depend on the market. The notion of Fanfani is that social justice is a principle that enables governments to apply fair distribution of resources and goods. But because capitalism has political connotations while religious purposes drive Catholicism, the ideals had no meeting point. Also, despite Catholicism being a religious outfit that should be driven by social justice and virtues, there is no universal social agreement of what is socially fair or not. Even with Catholicism, attaining social justice still proved to be a challenge even in societies that are non-capitalist (Fanfani, 1935).
According to the book Catholicism, Protestantism, and Capitalism, Catholicism changed capitalism into a spirit-focused thing instead of the economic inclination it should take. On the other side, according to Max Weber, the book illustrates that Protestantism, as another aspect of religion, is the cradle of economic enterprise and diligence. According to Fanfani, the author, the Roman Catholic teachings bring about Capitalism before Protestantism, which contradicts Weber’s literary works. The effect of capitalism in Catholicism is evident from the fact that before capitalism, every aspect of life in Roman Catholic was lived according to the traditions of the latter. Also, some people have argued that Weber’s idea links the spirit to Protestantism by opining that Catholics, despite not openly capitalistic, have been influential in commerce, business, and capitalism. This is because the socio-economic order of Christians was closely linked to the customs and laws that discouraged the exploitation of people. However, neo-colonialists were more profit and competition-driven. As a matter of fact, in the Catholicism spirit, the focus is not on profit acquisition but soul acquisition. In the Capitalism spirit, there is no limit to how much wealth one can acquire (Fanfani, 1935).
From the book Catholicism, Protestantism, and Capitalism, Catholicism does not cooperate on wealth acquisition or way of doing things but is focused on individual pursuits of wealth, profits, and interests. The reformation of capitalism also made it more attractive to people. However, the extent to which Protestant and Reformation doctrines enhanced capitalism is not clear. Besides, on a personal note, I believe that Protestantism encouraged capitalism when the proliferation of protestant churches that preached the prosperity gospel started to crop up. Some people began churches not to harvest money and not to harvest souls (Fanfani, 1935). 
According to the author, Catholicism disrupted the economic and political systems installed in Europe courtesy of capitalism. This is because while capitalism was for individualistic wealth cr...