The shoes must be tight when answering.
Nowadays, the dogma that development is indispensable is almost unquestionable. There must be development in all areas. The point is change. They awaken new desires and make them come true. The password is growth, greater prosperity, wider knowledge, more pleasure, longer (perhaps infinite?) life on earth. We once referred to the "limits to growth". They seem to have moved on from that a long time ago.
"We have to keep an eye on the engineers because they start with a sewing machine and eventually become an atomic bomb." Marcel Pagnol would have been shocked to know how right he was. Mainly because his statement applies to so many areas of economic and social life. We should also keep an eye on the farmers, they start with a manure pile behind the house, then end up with nitrates. Doctors initially experimented with penicillin, then progressed to clones, assisted suicide, euthanasia, and transhumanism. "This is progress," sighs Pagnol.
I'm not so sure about that!
Development means that we are on the way to something better, true development creates a greater good. The question immediately arises as to what is considered good - and here the shoes are really tight. In relativism, where subjectivity reigns, few are concerned with the meaning of the objective good (good for both the community and the individual) and the will to try to move towards it. Nowadays, development is equal to novelty, the possibility that even our wildest desires can be fulfilled, and the intention to free ourselves from the limitations of reality.
The latter is the field of transhumanists, who promise us a "better" person and a "better" life. They float the hope of defeating death, which they see as falling into nothingness. How many honest people have the rock-solid conviction that delaying death by a few years is the pinnacle of progress?
To live 969 years like Methuselah, to have 500 children like Noah - what progress! Just imagine, our already overpopulated and overexploited planet is burdened by billions of youth-obsessed old people supported by a minority of gutted young people. A dream, no question. How much do you have to hate people to promise them such a future?
If it's not Hell itself, it's a lot like it. This is not death, but life, joy and hope.
To rediscover the meaning of life on earth, we must know its purpose and accept its end. The goal is life with God; the end is death, death, which is not the end of everything and everyone, but the necessary but undoubtedly terrifying transition to the Lord. It is death that allows us to rise from a finite life lived in a body with limitations to eternal life in a transformed body. The "better" life, the inner peace, the joy of life are not to be found in transhumanism and its fantasies, but in God.
True happiness is not endless earthly life, true happiness is the ultimate goal of life. For those who have a goal, their life gains meaning and they want to move forward. So what is real development?
To start on the path of true goodness, to get closer to the truth, to strengthen our hope, to deepen our faith, to move towards greater justice, to seek peace, to love more and more, and to prepare for the great meeting with the Lord. This is not about "improvement, perfection", but about living a "fulfilling" life, that is, moving more and more towards the good, to do as much as possible of our own humanity for ourselves, others and God, according to the command of Jesus.
What is real development? Growth in holiness.
Featured Image: Pixabay
