The “Progress” God

We are a culture of progress. A combination of advances in technology, science, and social enlightenment have made “today” better than “yesterday”. Whether it has been technologies invented to bring us light in our homes, medicines discovered that cure disease, or bigotries defeated for the benefit of cross-cultural relationship we as a society/humanity have progressed.

And ironically, just as we recognize where we’ve come from we also recognize where we need to go (we are still a long way off from racial equality in this country). So we move on, working toward a better tomorrow.

In all of these ways, our desire for and participation towards, progress are good and true. However is it possible that the notion of “progress” also carries with it a dark side? One that might not lead us towards a more hopeful future for all but instead move us deeper towards injustice and imbalance?

Progress becomes problematic (and even harmful) when it comes by a purely humanistic understanding of the world. In this sense, those moving towards betterment seek to achieve it through the autonomy of humanity. Their “Triune-Progress-god” is one of science, technology, and economy. In this model progress happens as people push scientific limits to discover how “the world works”, develop technologies that serve for the luxury of our existence, and set up economies for prosperity. It constructs a society, a “tower”, that is strong, tall, and shiny…seemingly flawless.

When we serve human betterment through the gods of science, technology, and economy, we become people who construct our own Tower of Babel. A towering society prides itself on its “magnificence”, a spectacle of what can be accomplished when people work together to move forward. Yet when our betterment comes apart from Divine participation and rests solely on our own self aggrandizement we make severe flaws in the tower’s “construction”. This is the story of our Western modern culture as well as the story of how empire always operates.

In this version of “progress” betterment only comes to those who are benefactors of the Tower (the living situation at the “top floor” is certainly better than that of those in the shadows of the tower). Our human systems on their own are unable to bring about complete, whole, true harmony for all.

And when the “Progress” god fails and the Tower falls? It brings devastation (ex: the market collapse of ’09). In the midst of the Tower’s rubble and ashes, the collapse also brings with it possibility; a possibility that our progress might once again resume, yet this time not solely on the might of human autonomy but rather through the tandem movement of both humanity and the God of progress.

In this sense we become co-laborers not for a Tower that will one day topple, but co-laborers for a Kingdom that will bring lasting peace, justice, and equity for all.

Where do you see example of human progress that although bring good to some also bring oppression to others?