What progress?

Question

If humanity has progressed then why have we arrived at such environmental, social, economic, and religious disharmony?

Answer 1

Stating (accurately) that humanity has progressed is not stating that humanity is perfect - or - Lack of perfection is not an indication of lack of progress.

Ironic how one can sit in an environmentally-controlled room, well -fed, bathed in clean water, and healthy (including most of their teeth), chatting instantaneously with people around the world on a device that didn't even exist a generation ago, without fear of government reprisal for his/her statements, and not recognize that humanity has progressed. Ironic, and sad.

Answer 2

Lets take those one at a time:

Environmental: Actually, we've improved the environment in many ways. We've made rivers navigatable, made roads going everywhere, gotten rid of wolves. In some ways the environment has degraded, but thats because there are so many people. And, we've actually cleaned up a lot of it and continue to do so.

Social: Actually, people are far less likely to be robbed or murdered than they were several hundred years ago, at least in America.

Economic: I'm not sure what you mean by economic disharmony. There has never been so much opportunity for people to be well off economically. People use to work all the time just to get enough to eat.

Religious: There has always been religious disharmony. The only difference is now the religious fanatics have better weopons. However, more and more people are athiest, and even the believers are less fanatic than they once were, at least in America. The muslims are still living in the 8th century, so there's no hope for them.


Gary, you really don't understand entropy. If a river is carrying gravel, it will actually seperate the rocks by size, depositing the larger rocks first, and eventually depositing sand. The same thing happens on beaches. This can happen because the river or ocean waves have energy. Humans use energy, which ultimately comes from the sun, to put things in order. You actually can clean your apartment, if you eat a good breakfast first!

Answer 3

We are making progress. Stop being so hard on us. There was a time when the average life lasted less than 40 years. There were plagues that ravaged whole countries. Things are much better and they ill continue to get better.

Answer 4

It all boils down to one thing - Entropy. Entropy is a Law that says everything tends from an orderly state to a disorderly state. There is no getting around this Law. Entropy is NEVER less than zero - it is always positive. The only thing we can do is slow it down.

Answer 5

Would you choose to live in the past? the distant past?
I didn't think so...

Answer 6

...we're exploring our options.