What happens when science leaves human values behind? Or when governments become beholden to scientists? As noted earlier, today marks the 60th anniversary of the death of C. S. Lewis. On a new episode of ID the Future, we honor the occasion with a conversation with Dr. John West about Lewis’s prophetic warnings about science and scientism.

Dr. West explains what scientism is: the idea that modern science, particularly modern physical science, is the only way that humans can know truth about the natural world and ourselves. West discusses an essay Lewis wrote in 1958 called “Willing Slaves of the Welfare State.” In this essay, Lewis describes what happens when science neglects human values. He also predicts the rise of technocracies — governments that are ruled by scientists, while citizens lose their privacy and freedom. 

As an illustration, West discusses the COVID pandemic and how that recent public health crisis revealed much of what Lewis warns against. “If you have a group of people who claim to be speaking for Science with a capital S, that breeds a type of closed-mindedness and intolerance,” notes West. “If you live in a planned society, planned scientifically, someone has to be the planner. The more someone has to plan you, the less freedom you’re going to have.” Download the podcast or listen to it here.

In a subsequent episode, Dr. West will explain how scientism harms genuine scientific progress, how scientism can lead to moral relativism, and what we can do to bring science back into alignment with older, deeper human truths.

Dig Deeper

• Read C. S. Lewis’s essay “Willing Slaves of the Welfare State.”
• For a book-length treatment of C. S. Lewis’s views on science and scientism, get a copy of the The Magician’s Twin: C.S. Lewis on Science, Scientism, and Society, edited by Dr. West.
• Watch the first of West’s three short documentaries based on his book The Magician’s Twin: