scientism | ˈsʌɪəntɪz(ə)m | noun:
excessive belief in the power of scientific knowledge and techniques
We must also face the fact that certain attitudes
deriving from the mentality of “this present world”
can penetrate our lives if we are not vigilant.
For example, some would have it that only that is true
which can be verified by reason and science…
—Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2727
SERVANT of God Sr. Lucia Santos gave a most prescient word regarding the coming times that we are now living:
People must recite the Rosary every day. Our Lady repeated this in all her apparitions, as if to arm us in advance against these times of diabolical disorientation, so that we would not let ourselves be fooled by false doctrines, and that through prayer, the elevation of our soul to God would not be diminished…. This is a diabolical disorientation invading the world and misleading souls! It is necessary to stand up to it… —Sister Lucy, to her friend Dona Maria Teresa da Cunha
This “diabolical disorientation” is manifesting in confusion, fear, and division, not only in every day life but notably in the field of science. One of the main reasons for this disorientation is that the voice of the Church is no longer heard, or rather, respected; the sexual and financial scandals that have rocked the clergy have taken a catastrophic toll on credibility.
It is a particularly serious sin when someone who is actually supposed to help people toward God, to whom a child or a young person is entrusted in order to find the Lord, abuses him instead and leads him away from the Lord. As a result, the faith as such becomes unbelievable, and the Church can no longer present herself credibly as the herald of the Lord. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Light of the World, The Pope, the Church, and the Signs of the Times: A Conversation With Peter Seewald, p. 23-25
The consequences are none too little. Because, while the Church does not necessarily provide the practical answers to questions pertaining to health and science, she has provided a guiding ethical 
and moral voice that at one time was not only respected, but heeded. Ironically, this voice has never been so crucial as it is now.
Science and technology are precious resources when placed at the service of man and promote his integral development for the benefit of all. By themselves, however, they cannot disclose the meaning of existence and of human progress. Science and technology are ordered to man, from whom they take their origin and development… It is an illusion to claim moral neutrality in scientific research and its applications. —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2293-2294
In other words, the intrinsic dignity and truth of who man is—made in the image of God—must govern all “human progress.” Otherwise said Pope Paul VI:
The most extraordinary scientific progress, the most astounding technical feats and the most amazing economic growth, unless accompanied by authentic moral and social progress, will in the long run go against man. —Address to FAO on the 25th Anniversary of its Institution, November, 16th, 1970, n. 4
But who is listening to the popes anymore? In this Great Vacuum, another voice has risen to fill the void: science. As churches all over the world closed, Holy Water was poured on the ground, the faithful were barred from the Sacraments and priests barred from the faithful… it became clear just how insignificant Christianity is to a world possessed by a spirit of rationalism. Who will save us? Jesus Christ? His power that once pushed back plagues and barbarians? No, CNN’s Chris Cuomo provides the answer:
If you believe in one another and if do the right thing for yourself and your community, things will get better in this country. You don’t need help from above. It’s within us. —July 4th, 2020; CBN.com
But who exactly determines what is the “right thing”? It’s obvious: Cuomo, and those in power who are literally imposing a…
…dictatorship of relativism that recognizes nothing as definite, and which leaves as the ultimate measure only one’s ego and desires. Having a clear faith, according to the credo of the Church, is often labeled as fundamentalism. Yet, relativism, that is, letting oneself be tossed and ‘swept along by every wind of teaching’, appears the sole attitude acceptable to today’s standards. —Cardinal Ratzinger (POPE BENEDICT XVI) pre-conclave Homily, April 18th, 2005
Ethics and morals? Sure—but no longer according to the Church or to moral absolutes or the natural law, but according to the god of reason, expressed concretely in science. Indeed, a recent commercial by multinational pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer, preaches: “At a time when things are most uncertain, we turn to the most certain thing there is: science.”
THE GOD OF SCIENTISM
There is a little section on science in Pope Benedict’s Encyclical letter Spe Salvi (“Saved in Hope”) that is incredibly prophetic. It gives a stunning picture of what has transpired over four centuries and is culminating now as science is becoming de facto the new religion of “hope.” Benedict points back to the Enlightenment period when “faith and reason” began an unnatural separation. A new era was born where the correlation between science and praxis (practical application) would mean that, now, the dominion over creation—given to man by God and lost through original sin—would be reestablished, no longer through faith, but reason.
Anyone who reads and reflects on these statements attentively will recognize that a disturbing step has been taken: up to that time, the recovery of what man had lost through the expulsion from Paradise was expected from faith in Jesus Christ: herein lay “redemption”. Now, this “redemption”, the restoration of the lost “Paradise” is no longer expected from faith, but from the newly discovered link between science and praxis. It is not that faith is simply denied; rather it is displaced onto another level—that of purely private and other-worldly affairs—and at the same time it becomes somehow irrelevant for the world. This programmatic vision has determined the trajectory of modern times and it also shapes the present-day crisis of faith which is essentially a crisis of Christian hope. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Spe Salvi,n. 17
The “hope” is now in science. It is science that will save humanity. It is science that contains all answers (even if not yet discovered). It is science that will heal us. It is science that can now create life, manufacture food, and rewire genetics. It is science that can produce miracles such as turning boys into girls and girls into whatever they wish to be. It is science that can interface the mind with artificial intelligence thus preserving ones consciousness digitally and securing immortality for modern man (so they say). Who needs religion when we can recreate the universe in our own image?
There is perhaps no prophetic revelation that so succinctly nails the current ethos of our time as the one allegedly given to Fr. Stefano Gobbi (which bears the 
Imprimatur):
…the Antichrist is manifested through a radical attack on faith in the word of God. Through the philosophers who begin to give exclusive value to science and then to reason, there is a gradual tendency to constitute human intelligence alone as the sole criterion of truth. —Our Lady allegedly to Fr. Stefano Gobbi, To the Priests, Our Lady’s Beloved Priests, n. 407, “The Number of the Beast: 666”, p. 612, 18th Edition; with Imprimatur
USURPING GOD’S THRONE
Thus, it is a “crisis” because the hope of restoration no longer lies in the power of the Gospel and the coming of the Kingdom of God, but, says Benedict, in “scientific discovery” from which “a totally new world will emerge, the kingdom of man.”[1]Spe Salvi, n. 17 Do you comprehend what is being said, dear reader? If you understand the signs of the times, if you are listening to the popes and Our Lord and Lady in their apparitions, if you read the words of Scripture… they have been warning of this coming godless kingdom whereby man, in his arrogance, usurps the throne of God.
[The Day of the Lord will not come] unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. (2 Thess 2:3-4)
…the whole Christian people, sadly disheartened and disrupted, are continually in danger of falling away from the faith, or of suffering the most cruel death. These things in truth are so sad that you might say that such events foreshadow and portend the “beginning of sorrows,” that is to say of those that shall be brought by the man of sin, “who is lifted up above all that is called God or is worshipped” (2 Thess 2:4). —POPE PIUS XI, Miserentissimus Redemptor, Encyclical Letter on Reparation to the Sacred Heart, n. 15, May 8th, 1928; www.vatican.va
The rise of the Antichrist is essentially The Clash of Two Kingdoms: the Kingdom of Faith vs. The Kingdom of Reason. Of course, they were never opposed in the first place since reason is a gift 
from God that enlightens and strengthens faith, and even vice versa. However, the Spirit of Revolution in our times has risen like a beast from the sea in order to devour faith in the name of “reason” and “freedom.” But freedom from what exactly?
The kingdom of reason, in fact, is expected as the new condition of the human race once it has attained total freedom. The political conditions of such a kingdom of reason and freedom, however, appear at first sight somewhat ill defined… [and] were tacitly interpreted as being in conflict with the shackles of faith and of the Church…. Both concepts therefore contain a revolutionary potential of enormous explosive force. —Spe Salvi, n. 18
Benedict foresaw this hour—the hour of a violent Global Revolution. On June 9th this year, I wrote: “…mark my words—you are going to see your Catholic churches defaced, vandalized, and some burned to the ground not long from now.”[2]cf. Exposing This Revolutionary Spirit It was only a couple of weeks later that these attacks began. As I write, churches in France and the U.S. are smouldering while statues of saints are being defaced, beheaded, and smashed all over the globe. But in the name of what?
…an abstract religion is being made into a tyrannical standard that everyone must follow. That is then seemingly freedom—for the sole reason that it is liberation from the previous situation. —Light of the World, A Conversation with Peter Seewald, p. 52
Yes, freedom from the current State and freedom from the Church—but what, or rather, who will fill that vacuum? A cult of science has, in part, whereby the alchemy of Big Pharma and the wizardry of Tech Giants are the high priests of this new religion; the media is their prophets and the subservient public their congregation. The “dictatorship of relativism” is really a technocratic dictatorship governed by the rich and powerful who see science as a means by which to remake the world in their image—a world that is less populated, more automated, and every thing that “divides us” is dissolved: marriage, family, gender, borders, property rights, economies, and above all, religion.
THE NEW TECHNOCRACY
This is resulting in the destruction of freedom in the name of freedom whilst, ironically, surrendering vast amounts of power and control to governments and technocrats. This is most obvious in the quest for “freedom from COVID-19.” There is no longer a sane dialogue within the scientific community on the origins of this virus, how to combat it effectively, how to sensibly protect the populace, etc.. There is one narrative dictated by the mainstream media regarding vaccines, masks, social distancing, quarantining, shutting down businesses, etc. all for the “common good”—and be damned if you question its sanity or reasonableness. Many good scientists have tried—and found themselves ridiculed, censored, or fired. In other words, the climate right now is actually anti-scientific.
A new faith is rising, not in God, but in the high priests and prophets of science who “know best.” What is most frightening is that many people who call themselves Christians cannot see it, cannot see how they are being duped by the confusion, fear, and control that is now spreading like a pandemic throughout the world. As such, they are beginning to cling to the mainstream 
narrative with near dogmatic faith: science will save us; we must do what we’re told; trust the science. I have nothing against science, of course. The problem is that “the science” is contradicting itself by the hour—and destroying the economy, lives, and freedom in the process.
In a brilliant lecture for an online symposium on “The Coronavirus and Public Policy,” Heather Mac Donald, B.A., M.A., J.D., a Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, captures the hypocrisy and actual lunacy of the present hour regarding, for example, social distancing:
The absurd social distancing protocols make operating many businesses and much of city life virtually impossible. The six-foot rule is as arbitrary as the “metrics” for reopening. (The World Health Organization recommends three feet of social distance, and many countries have adopted that recommendation)….
One thing did change markedly between the coronavirus lockdowns and the riot lockdowns, however: elite wisdom regarding social distancing. The politicians, pundits, and health experts who had condescendingly rebuked business owners for reopening without official permission, who had
banned funerals and church services of more than ten people, and who had heaped scorn on protesters who had gathered in state capitols to express their economic distress, suddenly became avid cheerleaders for screaming crowds numbering in the thousands… The politicians’ hypocrisy was a mere warm-up for that of the public health establishment. These were the people whose diktats had inspired the lockdowns and whose allegedly supreme knowledge of medical risk was allowed to cancel all other considerations in maintaining a functioning society. Nearly 1,200 of these same experts, including from the CDC, signed a public letter supporting the unsocially distanced protests on the grounds that “white supremacy is a lethal public health issue that predates and contributes to COVID-19.”
One could just as easily argue that a global depression, induced by the gratuitous crushing of trade and the hollowing out of capital, is a lethal public health issue of at least equal magnitude. But it turns out that public health is as much about politics as it is about science. — “Four Months of Unprecedented Government Malfeasance”, Imprimis, May/June 2020, Volume 49, Number 5/6
That is but one of a number of mind-boggling contradictions—truly a “diabolical disorientation” when you consider that, ultimtely, the Eucharist was virtually banned from mass consumption while cannabis and liquor was not. Herein uncovers the real sickness behind this scientism: the most dangerous virus is not the one that infects the body but the soul.
The darkness enshrouding God and obscuring values is the real threat to our existence and to the world in general. If God and moral values, the difference between good and evil, remain in darkness, then all other “lights”, that put such incredible technical feats within our reach, are not only progress but also dangers that put us and the world at risk. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Easter Vigil Homily, April 7th, 2012
Scripture says that the Antichrist will come with “pretended signs and wonders.”[3]2 Thess 2:9 Maybe those signs aren’t necessarily like tricks pulled from a magician’s hat but simply scientific “wonders” that pretend to solve man’s problems (like articifical intelligence, genetic engineering, and the “internet of things”…) but, in fact, lead him deeper into them.
Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the “mystery of iniquity” in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh.—Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 675
Hence, warned Benedict:
[We] were wrong to believe that man would be redeemed through science. Such an expectation asks too much of science; this kind of hope is deceptive. Science can contribute greatly to making the world and mankind more human. Yet it can also destroy mankind and the world unless it is steered by forces that lie outside it… It is not science that redeems man: man is redeemed by love. —Spe Salvi, n. 25-26
These “forces”, often contrary to authentic love, are now aligning across the world as though forming a new “tower of Babel,” and with them, the nations who are falling into the deception (perceived or not) that God is now irrelvant in the face of our scientific powers and knowledge.
He [Satan] has succeeded in seducing you through pride. He has managed to pre-arrange everything in a most clever fashion. He has bent to his design every sector of human science and technique, arranging everything for rebellion against God. The greater part of humanity is now in his hands. He has managed by guile to draw to himself scientists, artists, philosophers, scholars, the powerful. Enticed by him, they have now put themselves at his service to act without God and against God. —Our Lady to Fr. Stefano Gobbi, n. 127, the “Blue Book”
But what is Babel? It is the description of a kingdom in which people have concentrated so much power they think they no longer need depend on a God who is far away. They believe they are so powerful they can build their own way to heaven in order to open the gates and put themselves in God’s place… While trying to be like God, they run the risk of not even being human – because they’ve lost an essential element of being human: the ability to agree, to understand one another and to work together… Progress and science have given us the power to dominate the forces of nature, to manipulate the elements, to reproduce living things, almost to the point of manufacturing humans themselves. In this situation, praying to God appears outmoded, pointless, because we can build and create whatever we want. We don’t realise we are reliving the same experience as Babel. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Pentecost Homily, May 27th, 2012
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Footnotes
| ↑1 | Spe Salvi, n. 17 |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | cf. Exposing This Revolutionary Spirit |
| ↑3 | 2 Thess 2:9 |