The Promise and Delusion of Progress

There is no genuine and lasting progress without God:

In life, both individuals as well as cultures and nations can progress – but also regress. And of course to measure something like progress means that we must have a rather lengthy measuring stick – we must be able to look at the big picture.

Without an objective standard we cannot really measure progress. There can be no progress – or regress – if there are no standards by which we can measure such movement. As C. S. Lewis put it in the essay, “The Poison of Subjectivism,” written during World War II:

Everyone is indignant when he hears the Germans define justice as that which is to the interest of the Third Reich. But it is not always remembered that this indignation is perfectly groundless if we ourselves regard morality as a subjective sentiment to be altered at will. Unless there is some objective standard of good, over-arching Germans, Japanese and ourselves alike whether any of us obey it or no, then of course the Germans are as competent to create their ideology as we are to create ours. If ‘good’ and ‘better’ are terms deriving their sole meaning from the ideology of each people, then of course ideologies themselves cannot be better or worse than one another. Unless the measuring rod is independent of the things measured, we can do no measuring. For the same reason it is useless to compare the moral ideas of one age with those of another: progress and decadence are alike meaningless words….

 

[E]xcept on the supposition of a changeless standard, progress is impossible. If good is a fixed point, it is at least possible that we should get nearer and nearer to it; but if the terminus is as mobile as the train, how can the train progress towards it? Our ideas of the good may change, but they cannot change either for the better or the worse if there is no absolute and immutable good to which they can approximate or from which they can recede. We can go on getting a sum more and more nearly right only if the one perfectly right answer is ‘stagnant’.

(Readers can find this essay in the 1967 volume, Christian Reflections.)

Or as G. K. Chesterton once put it: “Progress is a comparative of which we have not settled the superlative.” And as he also wrote:

A populace bewitched by the god of progress will always be seduced by the magical charm of “change” because the progressive god promises that “change” is always for the better. The irony inherent in these calls for “change” is that they play on the discontentment of those who are the beneficiaries of centuries of “change”. If “change” is beneficially progressive why are we always discontented regardless of the numerous “changes” that we have experienced?

There are of course different ways that we can look at the notion of progress. Certainly in the West, physical and material wellbeing and betterment have occurred big time. Simply looking at various medical, scientific and technological advances proves that genuine progress has occurred.

Just consider increasing life expectancy as one clear indicator. And we all are thankful for countless conveniences of modern life. Cars are a real improvement upon horse and buggy. Anaesthesia and modern pain killers make illnesses and operations a whole lot more bearable.

Flying to Singapore is a lot quicker than sailing there. Emails to friends overseas sure beat the old aerograms that we had to use. Running water and electricity in our homes are vast improvements on life a few centuries ago. Typing this article on my computer sure beats doing it all with pen and paper.

Of course most of the goods that we enjoy today can also have a downside. The benefits of something like nuclear energy can have a downside when nuclear weapons cause mass mayhem. The benefits of AI can quickly evaporate if Skynet-type scenarios eventuate. Automobiles get us around quickly and easily, but road fatalities are part and parcel of the car culture.

Moral and spiritual progress

Material progress turns out to be a real mixed bag. We can be thankful that we no longer live in the stone age, but the modern age can be just as problematic in so many ways. And that is because at the end of the day, human beings – flawed, fallen and finite human beings – are behind it all.

So it is equally important that we assess progress in terms of morality and spirituality. And this in turn will be understood differently, based on one’s worldview. There are some who take a very optimistic look at these matters. They can run with the old maxim of French psychologist Émile Coué who said over a century ago, “Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better.”

This feel-good, positive outlook on life can only go so far. The real world has a habit of crashing in on such a Pollyanna mindset. Crap does happen. Real evil exists. Everything is not sweetness and light. Not everyone is so very nice. Not all things are just peachy keen.

Just one small example of this. The other day on the social media I posted the 1988 Bobby McFerrin hit song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” The feel-good song with its catchy tune, and the antics of Robin Williams on the music video, do bring a smile to the face. See it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-diB65scQU

While I was watching the video, I briefly scrolled down to the comments’ section, and noted various folks had posted about some major crises, traumas and issues they were dealing with. Some saw the song as ignoring the real world filled with pain and evil. Others saw it as a temporary escape from their problems.

And of course it is not just non-Christians who can have an overly upbeat and unrealistic view of life. Some of our most popular TV preachers are happy to extol the virtues of their particular ‘theology’ – summed up in the words, “Your Best life Now.” As I wrote in one article about this:

There is much to celebrate and enjoy in life, and if you are a Christian you have plenty of reasons to rejoice and be glad. But that joy is in Christ, not in this world. Yes God is our source of peace and joy, but life itself is a real mixed bag.

 

We live in a very dark and fallen world, so there is plenty of suffering, hardship, evil and death to deal with as well as all the good. But some preachers and teachings try to tell us that we should only focus on the positive, that we should never think unhappy thoughts, and that everything is just peachy in life.

 

Sorry, these are false theologies and they have no connection with the real world. They have no connection with Scripture either. Everywhere the Bible makes it clear that in this life there will always be difficulties, trials, hardship, suffering, misery and grief. Sure, they may be intermittent, and we can also have times of great elation and happiness, but in a fallen world, we cannot and should not expect everything to be rosy. https://billmuehlenberg.com/2017/07/18/reality-suffering-versus-best-life-now/

The truth is, life in a sin-soaked world is filled with both great evil and great good. Wars and rumours of wars abound, and plenty of tyrants have caused so much suffering and death, be they Stalin or Hitler or Mao. But many others have done so much good for the world, whether a Handel and his Messiah, a Mother Teresa and her work in the slums of India, or a Bonhoeffer seeking to resist the Nazi machine.

And we must recall that the great material and scientific goods that we enjoy today are in large measure the result of the Judeo-Christian worldview. The great achievements of the West have mainly come about because of the values and beliefs promoted in the Bible. How many atheist hospitals exist?

So much of what we take for granted today – and count as progress – came from committed Christians. Improvements in education, healthcare, social reform, advances in science, treatment of women and children, and so on, all have roots in the biblical worldview. See more on this here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2020/09/09/a-faith-that-makes-a-difference/

So we can indeed give thanks to God for all the progress we have seen over the years. I for one am thankful that going to the dentist today is a whole lot less painful than it was a century and more ago. But we must be aware of the fact that as long as sin and selfishness exist – and it is found in all of us – then progress can only go so far. Indeed, we can expect plenty of regress to occur as well.

And the eschatology that a Christian holds to can also impact how we look at all this. Those holding to pre-mil views will be much more pessimistic, while those running with post-mil views will be more optimistic. Leaving aside these end-time perspectives, we know that the advance of the Kingdom will be met with fierce resistance from the enemy.

We all should work towards seeing the prayer of Jesus implemented in the here and now: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). But we also know that ultimate and complete progress comes only when Christ returns to planet earth, routs all evil, and establishes his eternal Kingdom.

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