As elaborated in the documentary film C.S. Lewis and the Case Against Scientism, C.S. Lewis made
an unusual comparison between science and “magic” arising from the abuse of science during the
two world wars. According to Lewis, Science and magic are twins because the two ideas are being
similar that they are able to function as an alternative religion in their encouragement of a lack of
skepticism, and he also highlighted three different ways that science and magic shows similarities.
-Science as Religion. As shown in the film, Dr. John G. West, editor of The Magician’s Twin
enlightened the audience that C.S. Lewis claims that science provides a view that refutes the
traditional religious view. It explains that for many people, science serves as a quasi-religion. It gives
their lives meaning. Additionally, Lewis believes science to be a fundamentally imaginative
enterprise. Dr. West also said that science and magic according to Lewis both have the ability to
function as an alternative to religion. Evolution, in particular provides an overarching vision that
many, find it satisfying: a view of something larger than their experience: the birth and fate of the
universe. An example of this is the belief of H.G. Wells’ cosmic evolutionism. In today’s era,
Darwin’s day and the 2012 rally that offers science to become a religion is another case to show the
claim of C.S. Lewis.
-Science as a Credulity According to C.S. Lewis, a second way that science and magic are similar is
ultimately they both encourage a lack of skepticism. Dr. John West explained that Lewis pointed out
that science promotes gullibility thinking as people in the modern world believe almost anything if
it’s dressed up in the name of science, thus magical thinking can support a kind of naïve thinking
where you just blindly believe whatever ‘the experts’ say. In the film, Lewis states that Scientism
fueled gullibility is illustrated by Freud’ materialistic reductionism as it was a blind unguided process
and also by Evolutionism that he noted as a fatal self-contradiction on the human mind. Lewis
concluded that both Darwinian and Freudian theories ultimately lacked the critical ingredient of
reason: “If my own mind is the product of the Irrational”, he asked “how shall I trust my mind when
it tells me about the evolution?”
-Science as a Power. The third similarity of magic and science according to Lewis is the quest for
power. Magic covets power of all things. He said that much of science, not all, was devoted towards