C.S. Lewis’ Materialist Magician Has Arrived. Now What?
Why Screwtape predicted our increased belief in ghosts and aliens
A decade ago, The New York Times highlighted what seemed to be a contradictory trend. Norway had shed its traditional Christianity for a more secular outlook, yet a belief in ghosts was increasing among Norwegians.
Many had rejected the Christian faith because they believed, like many others in Europe, it could not coexist with modernity and science. But one of the most popular television shows in the country, “The Power of Spirits,” focused on complaints of hauntings and brought clairvoyants to solve the unexplainable phenomena.
At that time, twice as many viewers tuned in to that show as regularly attend church in Norway. Speaking of the growing number of educated atheists and agnostics embracing a belief in ghosts, a Lutheran priest in Norway called it the “paradox of modernity.”
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Around the same time, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat spoke of a similar belief growing among the secular elite in New York City. They managed to work this ostensibly supernatural (or at least preternatural) belief into their very naturalistic outlook on life.
Currently, most Americans remain more skeptical about ghosts and other paranormal experiences, but one type of belief is growing—aliens. A CBS/YouGov survey found 63% of U.S. adults believe there is intelligent life on other planets, up from 48% two decades ago.
Aliens as religion
In a sense, aliens operate similarly to ghosts in a society. Both are seen as beings with abilities that far surpass those of humans and can appear and disappear instantly, leaving behind a confused but confident witness.
Regardless of whether it is aliens or ghosts, belief in these preternatural beings creates a philosophical opening among those who would otherwise reject the supernatural.
Writing decades earlier, C.S. Lewis saw this as the ultimate goal of the demonic underworld.
In The Screwtape Letters, Lewis, speaking in the voice of an experienced demon lecturing a younger tempter, describes the frustrations demons face when tempting humans.
We are really faced with a cruel dilemma. When humans disbelieve in our existence we lose all the pleasing results of direct terrorism and we make no magicians. On the other hand, when they believe in us, we cannot make them materialists and skeptics. At least, not yet. I have great hopes that we shall learn in due time how to emotionalize and mythologize their science to such an extent that what is, in effect, a belief in us (though not under that name) will creep in while the human mind remains closed to belief in the Enemy.
Then Screwtape describes their goal.
If once we can produce our perfect work—the Materialist Magician, the man, not using, but veritably worshipping, what he vaguely calls “Forces” while denying the existence of “spirits”—then the end of the war will be in sight.
Douthat pointed out that in the new version of secularism, one can embrace the experience of the supernatural without ever systematizing it. That is, you can believe in the spiritual (or “Forces,” as Lewis calls it), without placing it within the context of religion. You can accept ghosts, but not God.
Aliens may be an even “better” alternative. They can exist completely within a secular framework of scientism while also offering the believer something bigger than themselves to believe in.
The alien believer can even have a salvific view of extraterrestrials.1 Our only hope for our dying planet is benevolent aliens coming to rescue us, either through providing us with advanced technology or even taking us (or maybe only the righteous few) to a new paradise.
Where are we now?
This creates both opportunity and complexity for the Christian seeking to reach the secularist. In one sense, the supernatural secularist or alien atheist is a step closer to God in that they have already granted the existence of something beyond what they see.
But as Lewis rightly observes, through the words of Screwtape, this creates a significant danger of inoculation. This Materialist Magician can maintain all of the scientific trappings that allow him to reject God out of hand, while accepting the existence of something beyond himself.
Thus, he is able to embrace atheism, but also address the innate spiritual desires he possesses. In some ways, it’s the next evolution of atheism after the failed attempts at atheist churches a few decades ago.
But this again brings us back to the opportunity. Why is it that a thoroughgoing secularists would feel the need to add some version of the supernatural, ghosts or otherwise, into their belief system? What drives them to want there to be life beyond this planet?
It is here the danger lies for Screwtape. He may be right that the Materialist Magician can exist, but he has no explanation for why any materialist should ever want to add the magician label. The very possibility of the spiritual opens someone to experiencing its reality.
Regardless of what Screwtape asserts, hell has not won the final victory by creating this hybrid belief system. Just as the crucifixion of Jesus was used by God to bring salvation, so the injection of spirituality into secularism by greedy demons can and will lead some to embrace true and real spirituality.
Norway embracing spirits may allow them to become more open to the Holy Spirit. Americans looking for life beyond our world may grow more accepting of this world’s Creator. Let’s pray the frustration in Screwtape’s work continues.
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One of the reasons Lewis wrote the Ransom (or Space) trilogy is because he saw many of the educated and some of his students looking for salvation in interplanetary travel. They sought rescue and a place of rest in the heavens but not heaven.