Gunpowder vs. Printing Press

What is the most important invention of the Chinese- Gunpowder or the Printing Press? Both are very important to modern society, but I personally believe that the printing press was probably the single most important invention in the history of the world. (Either that or harnessing electricity.) Here are the reasons why:

• Gundpowder was originally used by the Chinese to make rockets and a weapon kind of like a flamethrower that could shoot fiery projectiles up to 30 feet away. At that time, bow and arrows were better anyway, but they evolved into several different things. The biggest was guns. Guns were the new way of warfare, the way that everyone fought. Guns replaced bow and arrows in long distance fighting. Eventually we just got rid of swords, because guns were so much more efficient. It is much easier to kill an enemy from a distance and only have to pull a trigger than beating your enemy to death with a pointy metal-thing. Gunpowder is also used for fireworks, a modern version of entertainment, and for bombs/rockets, something that can take out multiple enemies at once.
• The printing press allowed education to spread to the common people. Before, a book was hand-written and could take a long time to finish, let alone copy it. In order to copy it, you had to write it down again. So only the scholars and rich people could have books, and only the rich could learn to read and write. When the printing press came around, knowledge and learning spread. People could learn how to read easier, and reading meant learning and getting an education. This allowed technology to advance and get people out of the dark ages and into the modern era.
  

Gunpowder is nice, letting us kill each other easier, but all it really did was make warfare better, and all warfare does is cause nations to hate each other. The printing press made everyone smarter and let the world expand technologically. GO PRINTING PRESS!!!!