As Humans, We Might be Making Progress

Since the beginning of time there has been criticism about the "next generation." I put that in quotes because I'm referring to not only young people at any given time but also people of all ages at any time who adopt ideas that do not conform to the prevailing ones at that moment in history. 

My own version of "progress" happens when society at large begins to understand and pass from person to person and generation to generation some bit of knowledge about "reality." By "reality" I mean facts and/or inevitability. If humans writ large cannot accept facts or inevitability they will ultimately destroy themselves or destroy each other.

One reality is that most humans like and/or need some interaction and help from other humans. Because of this we form groups beyond our own families. The expressed reason for the groups is usually not the real reason they form. They form because humans need a group. The reason given for any group will vary from saving a vanishing bit of plant or animal life to ball room dancing to religion. 

Those who write about and practice religion are drawn to the incorrect idea that the most pressing need humans have is to form groups around religion. But inside even this group cracks are forming, and a bit of understanding is emerging, that atheists, religionists and ball room dancers all form because they need a group.  This helps explain the growing phenomenon called "nones", those who do not affiliate with any religious group. Their parents and grandparents needed religious denominations. This generation needs something else. Nothing has changed over the generations, each generation is identical in the need for groups. 

This morning one Christian Post was a piece by a young woman who opposed abortion but had had an abortion. While regretting the abortion, she pointed out reality: If women are criminals for having abortions almost every family will see a young member go to jail. This huge bit of truth was introduced less than a decade ago. Across the country state legislators are introducing bills which demand jail for women. While such laws are terrible and ridiculous, they represent progress from a decade ago when the blame for all abortions was assigned to abortion providers. As the truth soaks in across society, the far-fetched idea that abortions can be stopped will be pushed aside. Conservatives will oppose their young women going to jail just as do liberal. 

In so many ways things seem worse these days. Yet, the needle moves in the right direction some of the time.