“The 20th Century a characteristically unique time in history--the headlong, accelerating growth of scientific knowledge. The curve of knowledge is exponential, growing steeper like the curve of squares (1--4--9--16--36--49...). It has changed men's lives more in the past 20 years than in the previous 50; more in that 50 years than in the previous 2000. Man cannot, dare not stop its growth, though he does not know where it is taking him. -Time magazine "Steep Curve to Level Four" Jan 2 1950 

"A wheel turned no faster in Hannibal's time than it did in George Washington's. It took just as long to cultivate a wheat field in Egypt in 5000 B.C. as it did anywhere at the turn of the nineteenth century... The speed of technological change was almost as slow as that of life itself. Then suddenly, with the utilization of steam and electricity more changes were made in technology in two generations than in all the thousands of years of previous human history put together. Wheels and machines turned so fast that man could cover more distances in one day than he used to be able to do in a lifetime." -NORMAN COUSINS, Modern Man is Obsolete (1945 ed.), pp. 15,16. Viking Press, Inc., New York.

“In 64, a great fire broke out in Rome, destroying portions of the city and economically devastating the Roman population. Tacitus records (Annals 15.44) that Nero was rumored to have ordered the fire himself, and in order to dispel the accusations, accused and savagely punished the already-detested Christians. Suetonius mentions that Christians were killed under Nero's reign, but does not mention anything about the fire (Nero 16.2) Scholars disagree about whether Christians were persecuted solely under the charge of organized arson or for other general crimes associated with Christianity. -Geoffrey Ernest Maurice. "Why Were Early Christians Persecuted?". Past & Present , No. 26 (Nov., 1963), pp. 105–152. & Timothy D. Barnes, "Legislation Against the Christians," Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 58 (1968): 32-50.