Abstract
The history of the idea that mankind has made progress is traced from earliest times. The idea of progress only became accepted by the Christian west in the mid-seventeen hundreds, found mutual support in Darwinism a century later but today is in serious doubt by many historians. At the same time, the concept of "primitive society" among the anthropologists has been abandoned leaving nothing in its place even though the discipline is still dominated by the belief in evolution. Meanwhile, psychology still cannot offer a rational evolutionary explanation for the genius and the idiot-savant. However, the situation in all three disciplines can be resolved once the creation account of the fall of man given in the book of Genesis is accepted.