Angels and Demons
By Dan Brown
In Dan Brown's novel Angels and Demons, the prequel to The DaVinci Code, Robert Langdon is a Harvard symbologist who is called to the scene of a violent murder. The Man who was murdered, a physicist at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), was branded with the symbol of an ancient organization called the illuminati. The murderer also took a canister of antimatter from the lab. This canister, basically a time bomb, has a 24 hour battery life which, when over, will create an explosion comparable to that of a small nuclear bomb. This bomb has been placed somewhere inside the Vatican and Robert is sent to find it. this bomb, however, has been planted at the worst possible time: conclave. The former pope has recently died and new one is being picked from cardinals around the world. To make matters worse the four preferiti, or those who are most likely to become pope, have been kidnapped and threatened to be killed once an hour until the bomb goes off. Langdon must follow the path of the kidnapper in hopes of finding the bomb.
1. This novel like many of Dan Brown's other novels deals with the idea of forbidden knowledge and knowledge used for the wrong purpose. Do you believe there are some things man should not know?
2. What are some examples of knowledge or technology once thought to be great being used for the wrong purpose?
10 comments:
I believe there are many things we are not meant to know. Powerful knowledge may be great but it can always be used for bad. nuclear energy is a great example of this. we can use it to power our houses but we can also use it to destroy entire cities.
2. One example would be the spliting of the atom. This would have proved useful energy of what we used today. However, also today it is used for the wrong. The stockpiling of nuclear weapons and the threat of nuclear war was a huge negative aspect. Another negative example is the media. With the knwoledge and use of the media it is good to inform people but it is bad for the probaganda and the brainwashing it has on people promoting fear.
The atomic bomb was thought to once be great, but now can be used to destroy the world. Since evert country has a bomb, every one could attack eachother resulting in destroying the earth
I do think there are some things man shouldnt know. All it takes is something like the atomic bomb to get in the hands of the wrong person and destroy the world.
2. Things like guns and dynamite. Guns were invented for hunting purposes but were quickly used for warfare, and dynamite was for mining but also used for warfare and led to further inventions like the atomic bomb.
There are some things man should not know of course. Man is not always a benevolent being and can skew things for the wrong reasons. A good example would be the splitting of the atom, it gives energy which we need, but also creates a very large bomb which can be used for terrorism etc.
1. There are definatly some things man shouldn't known. The idea of forbidden knowledge has been around since the story of Adam and Eve.
2. And as everyone else said, atomic bombs, guns, and other weapons used to be great, but now can destroy many people, buildings, and cities.
1) There are many things that man should not know. Personally, I believe man is naturally evil so of course I believe that if fallen into the wrong hands (which are more numerous than bad hands with good intentions), any important sought after discovery has the chance to fire back and one man can abuse this discovery for his own personal intentions.
I think there are many things that people shouldn't know just because humans don't handle information well. They use it to get the upper hand and be their own definition of great. Some information is too great for any regular man to comprehend. An example of knowledge being used for the wrong purpose would be nuclear bombs. They are completely unnecessary and only used for intimidation and destruction which is not what that level of knowledge and understanding should be used for.
Answering question two, one example is the process of splitting atoms. What could just be used as an efficient way to power homes, was and is used in bombs to cause mass destruction.
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