this post was submitted on 07 Mar 2024
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In fairness, at the time, many Europeans believed in faries and other creatures, including these guys:
https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/720095/view/mythical-horned-beasts-17th-century
So, not much has changed then....
Yeah interesting thought there actually. In absolute numbers I wager more people believe in mythical beings of some form today in Europe than the 1700s. But as a share of the total population it's going to be a lot lower, of course.
Is it going to be a lower percentage of the total population though? There's a lot about ye olde days that kinda gets generalised, and hand-waved. Like people's ability to read in medieval times. Sure it wasn't as prevalent as today, but reading was probably a lot more common than most people think.
As for belief in mythical beings, who knows, religious belief was a lot stronger in the 1700s, but that doesn't necessarily mean everyone believed in the fae.
Gibson said "The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed."
The future was there with Newton, but it's still not evenly distributed 400 years later.
Touché!