

Despite a rise in recent years of racial tension, income inequality, terrorism threat, and a decline in religious practices, remarkable progress has been made over the past 100 years in economic prosperity, innovations in health and medicine, and spread of democracy. However, measurable progress is being made in the social, political, economic and spiritual domains.

The world, in its current state, obviously, is not a perfect place in the image of God. If we conceive of a better world characterized by fairness, justice, peace and tranquility for all, it has been a work in progress since the creation of humans, constantly evolving in many different directions - some desirable and some not - reflecting one’s own definition of a better world. Lucey, philosophy/religion professor emeritus, University of Nevada We asked our panel: Is it too late to build a better world? It is never too late to try It all starts and depends upon you - improve yourself they point out. We need to have courage and work on building the communities. They insist that it is never too late to become better human beings. Many have just given up, saying that world has reached a point of no return.īut many are still hopeful of better times and world where relations among the communities are harmonious and loving everybody is happy and lives in peaceful atmosphere there is enough freedom to live the way one likes all have access to adequate resources environment is moving in the healthy direction etc.

Here is a “short” list many will come up regarding the crucial issues the world is facing today: access to education, bad-governance, climate change, conflicts, corruption, deforestation, depletion of resources, discrimination, diseases, exploitation, food insecurity, greed, growth being not inclusive, inadequate health care, inequity, lack of pluralism, malnutrition, nuclear and other weapons, overconsumption, overpopulation, pandemic, pollution, poverty, risks of biotechnology, water concerns, women's rights and equality, etc. We routinely hear about unprecedented times and world not being the same.
