German sociologist Max Weber argued that as rationality and scientific discovery began to explode after the Enlightenment, human beings began to see the error of their ways and came to understand rain as the outcome of scientific processes, not the result of divine intervention. The German word Weber used to describe this shift in understanding, Entzauberung, is often translated “disenchantment” in English, but the literal translation seems much more fitting: “de-magic-ation.” Thus Weber argues that civilizations used to understand their world through superstition but now have the tools of
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