Paul Crook

The Opium of Science

Posted on November 23, 2020 by Paul Crook

The historian of science Joseph Needham asked: “Shall we substitute for the opium of religion an opium of science?” He hoped not.

” So long as time continues, so long as change and decay are around us and in us, so long will sorrow and tragedy be with us… there is little to be gained by trying to replace these considerations by a eupeptic (digestible) opium, derived from too bright an estimate of the possibilities of scientific knowledge. Driven out, it will return with redoubled force” .

C.S.Lewis and Mere Christianity

Posted on November 3, 2020 by Paul Crook

C.S.Lewis of Narnia fame explained his aim thus:

“[Mere Christianity] is like a hall out of which doors open into several rooms. If I can bring anyone into that hall I shall have done what I attempted. But it is in the rooms, not in the hall, that there are fires and chairs and meals. The hall is a place to wait in, a place from which to try the various doors,not a place to live in”

[1952]