The Progressive / Regressive War

This is the greatest conflict of all time. It has lasted for centuries and is global. At the same time that humanity's cognitive capacities progress, there have been groups who are set on regressing our intellectual and social capacities. Progressives eventually won in a number of places. But the regressives use subtle underground tactics when their usual brash and aggressive tactics are less effective. They slipped themselves back into politics at both national and local levels. They get into local governing positions in different areas and then network the areas turned regressive. They infiltrate schools. When that isn't successful, they attempt to damage public schools by diverting public funds to private schools via so-called choice or by opening schools controlled by religious groups. They force their extreme ideas into charitable projects. They force the needy to go through religious propaganda and rituals in order to receive assistance. They sometimes pretend to be the very progressives which they fight. They alter history to fit their beliefs. They also gather strength by consolidating their groups and forced gatherings. They indoctrinate their children and sometimes reject those who don't get trapped in the indoctrination. They use fear tactics. Regressives are more prone to violence either when they lose ground or when they feel the need to violently push their beliefs. The violence is partly due to the lack of a factual foundation.

The progressives sometimes unintentionally further the goals of the regressives. They are sometimes less cautious than warranted when they include regressive ideas into their suite of progressive movements. This sometimes has the effect of weekening the overall movement. It also gives ammunition to the regressives. Too many progressives don't take regressive political platforms into account when they vote for individuals who are tied to those platforms. Then the supposedly less regressive politician falls in line with the party's platform in order to further his or her position within the regressive party.

I personally believe that the regressives cannot win in the long term. But they can continue to cause damage as they gain and lose ground. The regressives have some avenues of influence which they control absolutely. Progressive infiltration into some of these avenues are very difficult whereas regressive corruption of progressive groups occur in part because of progressive openness. Although openness is integral to much of progressiveness, the regressives infiltrate traditionally progressive groups and corrupt them. In a way, I think of regressiveness as a disease. We've had it for most of humanity. It may not be completely curable but there are immunization options.

The war is complex. This is partially because there are opposing regressive factions with the progressives caught in the middle. It is further complicated by many of us who have a mix of progressive and regressive tendencies. In some cases, the dominance of one or the other shifts back and forth within people. Unfortunately, regressives have taken advantage of this fluctuation within people.

This is intended as an introduction to a series of blog and vlog entries which will discuss details of this war. I would like this to be a collaborative project. Leave comments if you have suggestions or want to contribute. I am not claiming that I have all the information. One difference which I see between progress and regress is being willing to say "I do not know" rather than acting on a false sense of knowledge. Acting on a false sense of knowledge seems to me to be one of the core elements of a lot of regressives. I will try to explore this in my next post.

I speak as someone who spent a large part of my life transitioning from being in one of the more regressive camps to being a progressively minded person. I was raised in a heavily religionist situation with environmentally and socially backward perspectives. But I saw some of the things which I was taught which was wrong. That eventually led me to question more and to question myself. After a rough transition period, I became better.

Hell Is Not For Children

This post is inspired by "Why I, an atheist, am afraid of hell" by CosmicSkeptic. I am also an atheist who had the fear of hell affect me periodically for years after I discontinued the beliefs. The conditioned emotional response was quite strong and depressing for the first few years. Although it has substantially mellowed in recent years, I still notice it from time to time.  I agree with Alex that it is child abuse regardless of the intentions. Fear is a primary emotion which can all too often occur even when it is completely contrary to the rest of a person's mental states. Conditioning which affects fear has been shown to sometimes last a lifetime. Fortunately, our other mental capabilities can compensate. But the dichotomy between the emotion and intellect can be disconcerting, even dangerously so. I think that it is valid to say that instilling unnecessary childhood fears which can negatively impact people into adulthood is abusive and unethical. This is especially the case since Hell is a fiction.

If it did exist, it is immoral. Hell would be immoral and an indication of God's immorality. The belief is that we will be punished for eternity if we don't make all the correct decisions in our short physical life. Believers in this expect more morality out of humans than they expect from their god. Only the worst tyrants and religionists have resorted to long term torture. And the scale adds to the evil. I have seen estimates that there have been more than 110 billion people on earth, which includes the current 6 billion. A bit over 50% of the current population are either Christian, Jewish or Muslim. Odds are that the majority of the others will not convert before they die. Go back a few thousand years and few people heard of the Abrahamic god. Now, it's a bit ambiguous regarding what happens to nonbelievers who have never heard of the biblical God or Jesus Christ. But we are still talking billions of people in Hell.  What is the justification? Any explanations are very shallow and only convincing for the conditioned believers. So how many billions of people will be eternally punished before the god is satisfied?

I believe that Hell is probably the worst idea out of many bad ideas in religions.