All this talk of Progressives and Atheism made me think of E.V. Check this quote out:
The aim of parousiastic gnosticism is to destroy the order of being, which is experienced as defective and unjust, and through man’s creative power to replace it with a perfect and just order. Now, however the order of being may be understood—as a world dominated by comic-divine powers in civilizations of the Near and Far East, or as the creation of a world-transcendent God in Judaeo-Christian symbolism, or as an essential order of being in philosophical contemplations—it remains something that is given, that is not under man’s control. In order, therefore, that the attempt to create a new world may seem to make sense, the givenness of the order of being must be obliterated; the order of being must be interpreted, rather, as essentially under man’s control. And taking control of being further requires that the transcendent origin of being be obliterated: it requires the decapitation of being—the murder of God.
– Eric Voegelin Science, Politics & Gnosticism
Gnosticism. Destroying the order of being, replacing it with a perfect and just order under man’s control. Creating a new world. That clangs awfully “fundamentally transformational” and progressive to me. Next up, the murder of God… no wait, that’s already well underway.
[Updated: July 10, 2013 to fix the image]