The philosopher John Gray is a marvelous critic of linear progress; he argues in his book Straw Dogs that progressive or redemptive views of history is partly the wish of christian mind. Even in the post-christian or secular society this is the case.

He also notes in the same book that the very same light sensitve chemicals found in human eyes are also found in very primitive life-forms such as bacterias (algaes etc). I recall he writes rather eloquently on the point that, "we [humans] see the world through the eyes of ancient mud". That is where we came from. That is how we see the world.