Civilization and Its Significance for Humanity

By definition, civilization generally relates to a complex society. In other words, we can say civilization is a group of people who are connected through various cultural aspects such as education, law, or the arts. Additionally, civilization is often characterized by the existence of polite and courteous relationships. Civilization has existed throughout humankind, evolving as humans invented new technologies, governments, and relationships this means is that a society is complex when it’s individuals live in groups of settled dwellings comprising cities and do engage in specialized activities. The elements of a complex society include moral and legal systems that are there to govern human conduct, technology to improve communication as well as a government, which is there to ensure justice and protect individual rights not forgetting cultural values. Many scholars describe civilization for different aims, and some of these aims can be to show how different nations act in their interactions with one another. The other can be to show the superiority of a particular race or ethnicity over other races and ethic groupings. But all in all, civilization should provide answers to questions like: who we are, where we came from, and where we are going. A scholar by the name of Terry Pratchett once said: “It is important that we know where we come from because if you do not know where you come from, then you don’t know where you are going. And if you don’t know where you are going, you are probably going wrong”.

Civilization in Relation to Christianity

Civilization in relation to Christianity is that the first civilization to research theology was Christianity. Christianity was first founded after the execution of Jesus Christ. Christianity is based on the concept that Jesus suffered and died to open the heavens to those who believe and trust in him for the remission of their sins. Jesus Christ lived from approximately 6BC to 30AD.

Stages of Civilization

Civilization, or rather societal development, can be said to have 3 main stages and these 3 stages are basically the preagricultural (hunting and gathering) stage, the agricultural stage and thirdly the industrial stage or modern-day civilization.

The preagricultural stage is simply the stage existing or happening before the practice of agriculture. With this stage everything depended primarily on the hunting of animals and the collecting of wild fruits and vegetables. Basically, this stage of civilization was a nomadic one, and cultures consisted of little more than tribal norms and traditions. The preagricultural stage had not developed agriculture as means of subsistence.

The agricultural stage simply relates to the growth and harvest of crops or plants. This civilization stage deals with activities such as loosening the soil, seeding, watering, moving plants when they grow bigger and harvesting among others. Minus all these mentioned activities outlined crops can’t be grown. The main steps for agricultural practices include preparation of soil, sowing, adding manure and fertilizers, irrigation, harvesting and storage. All the mentioned activities are what is involved in the agricultural stage of societal development.

The third and last stage of civilization is the industrial civilization. This stage refers to the state of civilization following the industrial revolution, characterized by wide spread use of powered machines. Such a civilization is mostly dependent on fossil fuel, with efforts underway to find alternatives for energy production. With the industrial type of civilization, society transforms itself from primarily agricultural society to an economy based on manufacturing. Industrial civilization refers to the broader state of civilization which spans multiple societies. The industrial revolution ushered in the industrial civilization. The modern world evolved further following development in mass production and information technology allowing service the economy and information society. Industrialization is the process of any individual or area been transformed. Industrial civilization is only having regions that still benefit from industrial societies without being industrialized themselves or having specialized in other ways. For example, service economies.

Characteristics of Civilization

In this section I will focus on religiosity, worldview, dynamism and heterogeneity as the common characteristic of civilization.

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No civilization is known to have existed without religious activities. Some civilizations were monotheistic, while others were polytheistic. The former civilizations believe in the existence of one God, such as Islamic civilization. The later are civilizations which believe in many gods and engaged in ancestral worship. They also believe in superstitions. Most civilizations were polytheistic, for example, they believed that natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, volcanos were all caused by invincible forces. Despite the differences among civilizations in beliefs and practices, religion was and continue to be the center to the lives of people as it provides answers to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything.

Worldview is one of the things that differentiate a civilization from other civilizations. A worldview of civilization refers to the set of beliefs held by a particular nation or community see and interpret the world. World here refers to everything that exists around man including the unseen. Man is also part of worldview.

By dynamism here we mean evolution and growth. Dynamic basically means they are forever changing, absorbing new nutrients such as culture and religion and advancing with time. They are complex and their lifespan is that they come into existence by rising and flourishing and going out of existence by a slow process which covers decades or even centuries.

Heterogeneity basically means being a characteristic of civilization we mean they are multiculture, multi-religious and multi-ethical. Civilizations are urban societies with diverse, heterogeneous muscles, strongly bound together by networks of intense habitual interactions, especially politics, military and economic. Therefore, the benefits of civilization cannot be restricted to few individuals or be limited to certain groups, races, nations - this is one of the things that distinguish humans from other species.

Importance of Civilization

Every civilization, regardless of the creed by which it is characterized, has two facets namely, material and spiritual. Civilization denotes both material and moral values and also infrastructure (material) and superstructure (spiritual). Civilization is an advanced stage in social development that fully supports the education, spiritual, and physical development of its people, with technological advancements for the enhancement of the society, in accordance with the needs of the people. The relationship between the material and spiritual aspects of civilization is like the two sides of a coin: one cannot exist without the other. The fact still remains: there has been no great civilization without spiritual aspect to it. This characteristic of civilization (body and spirit) is a reflection of the nature of human being. Example is that of matter and spirit. In view of the fact that matter and spirit are the necessary elements of every civilization, it is not an exaggeration to say that civilization is a signification of a society’s material and spiritual achievements. It is the attainment of both material well-being and the elevation of the human spirit. The material aspect of civilization entails a wide range of physical items and beings such as monuments, cities, gardens, artwork and tools or machines. It is everything that has a physical form or shape. They indicate human progress and development. To put it briefly, they denote the advancement of knowledge; they are the fruits of knowledge or human creativity.

The spiritual aspect of civilization is the nonmaterial objects. It includes beliefs, ideologies, traditions, ethics, morals and values. Here are some of the examples of ethics that form the foundation upon which a civilization is structured: love, kindness, truthfulness, selflessness, compassion, integrity, honesty, loyalty, reliability, respect, fairness, responsibility, hospitality and dedication. Ethics is the set of moral principles that are universally accepted.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we can say, although civilization makes us human beings lose some grip of individual happiness and freedom, these losses are insignificant compared to all of the benefits we receive from being a part of it. When we look closely at the structure of civilization, we are able to prove that indeed human being’s survival actually depends on it. Living a grouping setup really encouraged early humans to be compassionate to each other. They would warn each other of any dangers, and thus protected each other in the end. As humans helped each other they begun to move away from their more aggressive behavior. Now imagine if we ever revert back to the aggressive behavior, we feel guilty reason been the civilization we are in today does not condone such behaviors. Thus, civilization can be seen as a necessary evil although it limits us in so many ways but without civilization the human race would never be able to survive.