C.S. Lewis: When science becomes magic, Parts One and Two

C.S. Lewis: When science becomes magic, Part 1 

 "The new oligarchy must increasingly rely on the advice of scientists until in the end the politicians become merely the scientists' puppets." – C. S. Lewis, "Willing Slaves of the Welfare State" (1958)

By Ellis Washington, Published August 23, 2013

 Legendary scholar, writer and Christian apologist C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) more than a half century ago, warned about how science (a good thing) could be systematically perverted to attack religion, deconstruct law and destroy human freedom (a bad thing). In this essential documentary, "The Magician's Twin: C.S. Lewis and the Case Against Scientism," noted scholars analyze Lewis' prophetic warnings about the political corruption of science (scientism) or the efforts to use the scientific method to explain, control, enslave every part of human life and how Lewis' predictions are essential for us today.

 Historically, the first half of the 20th century was defined by almost incessant wars and the rise of fascist dictators who in less than 50 years caused more genocide than the history of mankind up to 1900. Nevertheless, we were warned by three prophetic writers about the evil side of unbridled scientific and utopian technological progress: 1) G.K. Chesterton, "Eugenics and other evils"; 2) George Orwell, "1984"; and 3) C.S. Lewis' "Abolition of Man." C.S. Lewis possessed a passionate interest in the emergent power of scientism – the fascist technique of perverting the methods of science to define, manipulate and dominate every aspect of human existence...............

C.S. Lewis: When science becomes magic, Part 2.

"I dread government in the name of science; that is how tyrannies come in." C.S. Lewis:

Conventional thinking by the progressive left treats science as something innovative, original and modern. For C.S. Lewis, however, science was more closely related to ancient magic. Lewis characterized science and magic as analogous, emphasizing three different ways science and magic are similar: 1) Science/magic as the ability to function as religion demanding absolute obedience, devotion and worship; 2) Science/magic as credulity commands groupthink and ironically promotes a lack of skepticism; and 3) Science/magic as power over the world in order to dominate society and triumph over nature and the universe.

Science as religion

Science has the capacity to induce worship to the same degree as any religion; her prophets are scientists and professors, their decrees infallible! Indeed, doesn’t a magical view of the world beguile one with a sense of awe that surely life is more than our humdrum daily lives? This grandeur of the universe gives us a sense of meaning and purpose that transcends the physical world, entering the realm of the metaphysical world. Even for those people who aren’t religious, this magical view of the world can in fact be more compelling, because science-as-religion substitutes God (religion) for scientism (magic, politics). Therefore, in reality, since Darwin’s “The Origin of Species” (1859), modern science has indeed devolved into a pseudo-religion; a racist, diabolical cult and a servile slave to socialist politics and government funding..............

My Take - As further evidence of the validity of the view of this author, this appeared on March 7, 2023 by Steven Hayward as the Thought for the Day, quoting Political philosopher Joseph Cropsey (d. 2012), writing in 1964, with prescient thoughts for our Age of COVID Authoritarianism (among other “scientisms”) saying:

A dogmatic belief in science is contrary to the principle of science itself; yet philosophy, not science, has appealed to the rational prohibition against closing of investigation, in the precise issue of the authoritativeness of science. Affected as we are by the tremendous prestige of science, we are well reminded that the power of science is a metaphorical expression for the power of man and that knowledge about man thus in a most important sense overrides the truth possessed by man about non-human things. For the power of man is a power to procure human good or ill; and as freedom undirected by reason is called license, so power undirected by human reasoning about human good or ill is tyranny or folly, or, most probably, both.