It provided a blueprint for a an agrarian, pre-industrial lifestyle, a plan that would remain applicable so long as conditions remained similar. But conditions were destined to change. and to change dramatically. First came industrialization, and the end of the traditional rural way of life. Next -- modern technology, high speed transportation and communication. Suddenly the vast world in which Lutheranism had been born was no longer so vast. In an instant, individuals from different parts of the globe could speak to each, and listen to each other. Radio and television brought far-away places - and ideas - into every home. The tried-and-true premises of the Old Faith were now in direct competition with alien ways of thought, and ways of living. Whether the result of scientific developments, or cross-cultural fertilization, it was becoming increasingly difficult for many religious people to continue to blindly accept, on simple faith, what they had been taught. To a much greater extent than at the time of Martin Luther, Christians of all stripes are presented with a range of information that potentially challenges traditional ideas and beliefs. For the modern person who knows of Buddhism, Taoism, and many other "alien" religions, the problems of doctrine are immense. As well, science has explained many things that, in the past, could only be explained by way of religion. Such rational arguments present a powerful challenge to the teachings of any faith. Take science, and knowledge of the world together, and you have a potent mixture. The well-educated Lutheran of today may be filled with new questions that his Church can simply not answer. .

             Popular belief, or "conventional wisdom," has long held the idea that blind religious faith - the kind that ignores obvious scientific explanations of natural phenomena - is necessarily an example of gross ignorance and irrationality.