Conclusion

Abstract

Science is the modern god. In a disturbingly large number of ways, the position of science in the mid-twentieth-century parallels that of religion in the mid-nineteenth. Twentieth-century politicians invoke science and justify their actions on the basis that they are done in its holy name. Twentieth-century scientists, like nineteenth-century theologians, make the wildest claims on behalf of their god, not realising the danger that if these claims are proved false their god may fall. Twentieth-century charlatans of a myriad varieties offer their panaceas for society and attempt to mislead the people by calling their misbegotten concepts scientific. And bewildered twentieth-century common men have a crude faith in their god which they do not care to have questioned too closely but which could be destroyed if it were demonstrated that their graven image has feet of clay.