The Magicians Twin

The Magician’s Twin: CS
Lewis and the case

against Scientism.
Christine Joy Saguid
Adelaide Refugio
Catrin Odi
Andrew Rivera
 The Magician’s Twin: C.S. Lewis on Science, Scientism, and
Society is an essay collection that seeks to paint a less familiar
picture of C.S. Lewis
 The Magician’s Twin elucidates C. S. Lewis’s profound
contribution to our understanding of the natural world, its
design and its functions, and its relationship to the
supernatural world, two worlds that we inhabit
simultaneously, if somewhat obliviously. This collection of
essays shrewdly corrects some misapprehensions of Lewis’s
views on evolution, the character of reason, and the role of
empirical science in adjudicating the answers to life’s most
important questions. Its greatest service, nevertheless, is
foregrounding for 21st Century readers the threats to
freedom that unchecked scientism engenders (the “twin”
referred to in the title)—threats that Lewis so relentlessly and
prophetically and bravely warned us about in his era.
 Lewis, in contrast to many of his
critics, had a detailed and
consistent view of science and its
impact on culture.
 Lewis was not anti-science; he was
anti-scientism, the belief that
modern science supplies the only
reliable method of knowledge.
• Lewis also commented on the blind acceptance of
eugenics and other later-debunked 'scientific' views by
many scientists. If even scientists show such credulity,
then as the general public increasingly defer to science,
they are even more susceptible to unquestioning
acceptance of what is presented as 'science'.
Here are the fundamental positions
taken by Lewis:
(1) Lewis believed in the common descent of all human beings from one ancestor.
(2) Lewis believed in the fall into sin as an event in history, including a literal Adam
and Eve.
(3) Lewis believed God worked the miracle that made Adam and Eve.
(4) Chance and necessity produce nothing, and natural selection has its limitations.
(5) Reason, beauty, and morality cannot be explained by a blind material process.
For example, in “The Funeral of a Great Myth,” Lewis found it unbelievable that the
theory of evolution “asks me to believe that reason is simply the unforeseen and
unintended byproduct of a
mindless process at one stage of its endless and aimless becoming” (54f.).
(6) Evolutionists are growing in their dogmatism and intolerance.
(7) The mass media have created a popular scientism.
(8) The current paradigm discourages scientists from asking the questions that
would elicit evidence for function and design.
 Science has many positive aspects. To many, the
abilities of science seems almost magical. In The
Abolition of Man, Lewis claimed that serious magical
endeavour and serious scientific endeavour are twins.
Although this seems strange, there are some key
similarities (as well as differences).
 The phrase “the magician’s twin” comes from Lewis
himself. As John West points out, “the comparison
between science and magic runs throughout a
number of his works”, the two ideas of science and
magic being similar in that they are able to function as
an alternative religion in their encouragement of a lack
of skepticism, and in their quest for power.
Science
is like Magic
• Lewis thought that science and magic are twins
• 3 different ways that science and magic are quite
similar:
❖ Science as religion
❖ Science as credulity
❖ Science as power
Science as religion
 Science has the ability to function as religion. It can be an
alternative religion.
 In 2012 we had 10 to 20, 000 people converge on Washington
DC in the United States for this reason rally where a lot of
people testifying whether they really offer Science as a religion.
 Today there are many people who offer science in the name of
science as a quasi religion. It’s what gives their lives meaning.
“Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.”

- Richard Dawkins
 February 12th every year- Darwin day

Science as Credulity
 Science and magic is similar according to Lewis is their
encouragement of a lack of skepticism. m. This may seem
counterintuitive, since science in the popular imagination is
supposed to be based on logic and evidence, while magic is
supposed to be based on a superstitious acceptance of claims
made in the name of the supernatural
 Evolutionism was another prime example of credulous thinking
fostered by scientism according to Lewis.
 People will believe almost anything if it’s dressed up in the
name of science.
Science as Power
 Science as power is the most dangerous aspect of science's
similarity to magic, which threatens the future of civilization
itself. The critical difference between science and magic is that
science 'works'.
 Magic wasn’t just about understanding the world; it was about
controlling it. The great wizard or sorcerer sought power over
nature. Similarly, science from the beginning was not just the
effort to understand nature, but the effort to control it.
 . In pursuit of that objective, both magicians and scientists “are
ready to do things hitherto regarded as disgusting and
impious—such as digging up and mutilating the dead
 “Human beings now have the power not only to control but to
create new genes for themselves. Why not seize the power?”
- Biologist Lee Silver, Princeton University
 In The Abolition of Man, Lewis expressed his hope that a
reformation of science could be brought about by
scientists. But he made clear that the task was too
important to be left to them alone: “If the scientists
themselves cannot arrest this process before it reaches
the common Reason and kills that too, then someone
else must arrest it.”88 In a free society, scientism
requires the cooperation of scientists and non-scientists
alike to prevail, and it requires the cooperation of both
scientists and non-scientists to be defeated.
 Lewis did not accept the idea that Science was a special
for of knowledge that is somehow immune to infection
that somehow cordoned off from the non specialists
assessing the deliverance of Sciences.
 Science alone is not sufficient.
THANK YOU!!!

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The Magician’s Twin: CS

Lewis and the case

“Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.”

 February 12th every year- Darwin day

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