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Watch: How C. S. Lewis Predicted the Rise of “Scientocracy”

Photo: C. S. Lewis, by Asar Studios/Alamy (Photo by Hans Wild/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images).

Editor’s note: To mark the release on November 3 of the new C. S. Lewis biopic, The Most Reluctant Convert, we are running a series of articles exploring C. S. Lewis’s views on science, mind, and more.

SPECIAL LIMITED-TIME OFFER: Get a FREE chapter exploring C.S. Lewis’s views of intelligent design from the book The Magician’s Twin

“I dread government in the name of science,” C. S. Lewis wrote in 1958. “That is how tyrannies come in.” Isn’t that the truth — as we can see as clearly today as any past generation could. The new theatrical release about Lewis, The Most Reluctant Convert, opens across the U.S. and Canada this coming Wednesday. So it’s a fine time to review some of the excellent and extremely timely videos on our C. S. Lewis YouTube channel. For one, “The Magician’s Twin: C. S. Lewis and the Case Against Scientism” is even more timely today than it was when it was released in 2012. As director John West comments in the video, Lewis in his books That Hideous Strength and The Abolition of Man “predicts the rise of a new class of experts speaking in the name of science who would dictate to everyone else.” Lewis called the resulting form of political domination “scientocracy.” I find that eerily relevant at this moment. Watch and see if you agree:

David Klinghoffer

Senior Fellow and Editor, Evolution News
David Klinghoffer is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute and the editor of Evolution News & Science Today, the daily voice of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture, reporting on intelligent design, evolution, and the intersection of science and culture. Klinghoffer is also the author of six books, a former senior editor and literary editor at National Review magazine, and has written for the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Seattle Times, Commentary, and other publications. Born in Santa Monica, California, he graduated from Brown University in 1987 with an A.B. magna cum laude in comparative literature and religious studies. David lives near Seattle, Washington, with his wife and children.

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C.S. LewisexpertsfilmsgovernmentPoliticssciencescientismscientocracyThat Hideous StrengthThe Abolition of ManThe Magician's TwinThe Most Reluctant ConvertYouTube videos