An Old Science book from 1650

[Exian]

So people just went about their day- going to work, eating dinner with their family, doing lawn maintenance- all while believing a bird with a human head existed?

Don't forget the omnipresence of death back then. 1650 was 2 years after the 30 years war ended and between the regular outbreaks of the black death. Apart from the fact that pushing 40 was considered old age back then. People, in the largest part of the world, toiled the fields for some feudal lord.

So, no, they didn't just go about their day in our sense of the word. They were much more focussed on the next life, since it was their only hope. And science was still in it's infancy. Galen was still the ultimate authority when it came to medicine. Humoral pathology was state of the art, even if you could afford a doctor, who, most likely, would only perform some bloodletting as the ultimate therapy.

I happen to own two calendaries from 1647 and 1649. The one from 1649 holds handwritten notes by some monk where he talks about visiting the community and looking after the sick. A very different mindset, indeed. Our mindset would be more fitting for the much further removed classical age than it would fit into the world, only some 360 years in the past.

You know what though, I sometimes like to look at history with the idea that humans haven't changed that much. Sure, the culture has as you've said, but on a basic personal level, I bet they weren't all that different. That is to say, they varied widely just as we do. For every religious text or science book from those times that would have you believe the words contained in them were the center of the world, there were probably people who just didn't give a shit. A moderate for every extreme, at least somewhere. This is all besides the point, though.