And you do seem to be judging the "myth of progress" by its last place finisher.
Quite the opposite, I'm judging the MoP by its origin.
In the Ancient World, and in many surviving traditions, time is cyclic (eg Hinduism, and arguably, in the Abrahamic Tradition.)
Allowing 'cycles' for a moment, the Abrahamic might be said to be speaking about this
particular cycle, from the Creation to the End of the World – as one complete and self-contained cycle, without reference to any other, it can be conceived of as 'linear'.
Nowhere in the Traditions (afaik) is there the concept of man getting progressively 'better', there's no indication of a progressive and evolving human spirituality, and that is what I'm discussing – material progress is a another discussion and one I don't dispute, although everyone seems to think I am, and want to argue in those terms, which I'm at pains to point out aren't relative to the discussion.
When the 'End' comes, it will arrive with dire portents, but then also like 'a thief in the night', in fact Scripture seems at pains to make the point it will come when we least expect it. And the fact that every age, since the record began, sees dire portents in its own time means that reading the times accordingly is really not much use.
The MoP as it exists today is actually a product of the de-mystification of religion by the Protestant Reformation – an argument made, quite strongly, by an
atheist philosopher – but that in itself is a whole other discussion.
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We, as people, suffer the same vices as we always have, and are no better nor worse than we ever were, despite all the trappings of 'civilisation'. Human vices and virtues have been listed and discussed from Antiquity, and they are the same now as they were then – we have not outgrown any of them ... therefore progress, in that context, is an illusion.
www.bahai.org
