Progressive Humans
A few of my friends have commented on this subject of late,
which has set me thinking. Every so
often we have this flash of how
progressive we are today, how clever we have become and how sorry we feel for
those older or past that did not have our knowledge and so progress, and oh how civilised we have become.
I think that was the sort of zeitgeist around 1913
particularly in Europe and then of course came World War One 1914 - 1918 with
all the civilised countries of Europe and then the world trying their best to
annihilate each other.
Then of course the talk was that this was the war to end all
wars, we would then become civilised. The progress of the humans could continue,
we know so much better than those throughout history our forefathers and the
like. The dream was of course shattered
by World War 2 1939 to 1945 with its mayhem and destruction and inhumanity to
mankind by very ‘civilised progressive humans’.
It doesn’t take long for things to settle down, and I would
guess that there was positivity in the 50s and certainly, there was ‘peace and
love man’ in the 60’s and we are back were we started, the accident of the universe
allows us to get better and better, we after all know so much more than those
who went before. Yes we have access to
information at the touch of a button, we can get it on the internet, not that
we always remember what we learnt or even had the wisdom to use what we know,
but surely we are getting so much better, so much more civilised? Perhaps we should not mention the Stalin
regime, or Pol Pot or maybe Iraq, Syria, Rwanda, Kosovo, Bosnia Herzegovinian,
do I need to say more?
As I think about the propensity to think that we are so much
cleverer, wiser, knowledgeable than those who have gone before us, they didn’t
know much did they, very superstitious, often using God to explain those things
that they did not understand, at least that is what some would have us think. I
am reminded, as I think about this ‘clever us now’, of an argument or was it a
discussion between C. S Lewis that he relates in one of his essays. The question is put that how silly it would
be to imagine that if there is a God he would be interested in this tiny place
Earth, of course the argument goes, in history they looked up and saw the sky
and they did not know how large it was therefore it could seem that the Earth
was the centre of the universe, now of course we know better. I imagine Lewis pulling a book off the shelf
and reading as follows, and perhaps saying “is this the sort of thing you mean?”
and reading from the book he has pulled “in relation to the distance of the
fixed stars Earth must be treated as a mathematical point without magnitude” “is
that what you mean?” I am sure the
protagonist would reply “yes, that’s just what I meant, that’s what we now know”.
Then Lewis checking, as if he needed to, saying “Oh this is from Almagest, Book
one Chapter five and it was written by Ptolemy 2,000 years ago, so they
obviously knew that then!”
I can hear the protagonist saying, “Well what about the
nonsense of the virgin birth then? We certainly know how children are produced,
and maybe Joseph didn’t understand”. “That
would be strange,” Lewis may have replied, “for then I wonder why if Joseph did
not know the normal course of pregnancy he would record that on discovering his
wife’s condition he was ‘minded to put her away’ Mathew chapter 1 verse 19.
We really must stop
thinking that those ancient people did not have knowledge were stupidly ignorant
of normal processes of life and therefore were duped by what the Bible would
list as miracles.
So are we really progressive humans, infinitely more
knowledgeable, wiser and definatly more civilised?
Adrian Hawkes
W696
Edited By: Gena Areola
