Clive Staples Lewis warns against exaggerated claims of governments invoking religion or science to enable tyranny.
“I do not like the pretensions of Government -- the grounds on which it demands my obedience -- to be pitched too high. I don't like the medicine-man's magical pretensions nor the Bourbon's Divine Right. This is not solely because I disbelieve in magic and in Bossuet's Politique. I believe in God, but I detest theocracy. For every Government consists of mere men and is, strictly viewed, a makeshift; if it adds to its commands 'Thus saith the Lord', it lies, and lies dangerously. On just the same ground I dread government in the name of science. That is how tyrannies come in. In every age the men who want us under their thumb, if they have any sense, will put forward the particular pretension which the hopes and fears of that age render most potent. They 'cash in'. It has been magic, it has been Christianity. Now it will certainly be science. Perhaps the real scientists may not think much of the tyrants' 'science'-- they didn't think much of Hitler's racial theories or Stalin's biology. But they can be muzzled.”
Clive Staples Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis was an Irish writer and literary scholar. He taught at Magdalen College, University of Oxford, and held the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance English Literature at the University of Cambridge.
This quote warns against governments' exaggerated claims to power, whether based on religion or science. It reminds us that true science and religion must not be used as tools to justify tyranny.
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Clive Staples Lewis (1898–1963) was an Anglo-Irish writer, literary scholar, and theologian. He is renowned for his works of Christian apologetics and 'The Chronicles of Narnia'. Lewis taught literature at Magdalen College, Oxford, and later at the University of Cambridge. His influence extends to modern fantasy literature and Christian philosophy.
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