The End of Progress
Painting, Political / Social, Mixed technique, 122x114x1cm
The End of Progress was made as a response to the book Straw Dogs by John Gray. In this book John Gray criticizes the idea of progress. He traces the origin of progress within, the secular, science and humanism to Christianity and in particular to the idea of an apocalypse after which a new era will begin.
John Gray explains that we learnt from Darwin that we are animals but humanists believe, that unlike other animals, we are free to choose how we live. The origins of free will does not come from science but from Christianity and the idea that humans are different from all other animals is also a Christian idea. ''Humanism is not science, but religion.'' he writes.
He goes on to say that: The accumulation of knowledge within science grows. Whereas human life as a whole does not cumulate. What has been learnt in one generation may be lost in the next. He continues to write that: ''Science increases human power – and magnifies the flaws in human nature.'' We may live longer and have better living standards than before but simultaneously we are able to bring destruction on each other and on the Earth on a larger scale than ever before. The idea of progress is routed in the thought that the increase of knowledge and the advance of the species go together. But John Gray disagrees, he writes: ''Knowledge does not make us free. It leaves us as we have always been, prey to every kind of folly.'' In the biblical myth of the Fall of Man and in the Greek myth of the punishment of Prometheus you can find this truth.
John Gray explains that we learnt from Darwin that we are animals but humanists believe, that unlike other animals, we are free to choose how we live. The origins of free will does not come from science but from Christianity and the idea that humans are different from all other animals is also a Christian idea. ''Humanism is not science, but religion.'' he writes.
He goes on to say that: The accumulation of knowledge within science grows. Whereas human life as a whole does not cumulate. What has been learnt in one generation may be lost in the next. He continues to write that: ''Science increases human power – and magnifies the flaws in human nature.'' We may live longer and have better living standards than before but simultaneously we are able to bring destruction on each other and on the Earth on a larger scale than ever before. The idea of progress is routed in the thought that the increase of knowledge and the advance of the species go together. But John Gray disagrees, he writes: ''Knowledge does not make us free. It leaves us as we have always been, prey to every kind of folly.'' In the biblical myth of the Fall of Man and in the Greek myth of the punishment of Prometheus you can find this truth.
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