How Tyrannies Come In

Rev Dr William Philip has written a great piece in Evangelicals Now about the rise of the veneration of the scientist in our day as that which uses elected figures as puppets and assumes themselves to be the source of all guidance and authority in all matters of public and private life.

I have written several posts over the years denouncing and exposing this mode that functions as science, but is in fact the illigitimate disordered version of it, namely scientism, see here for an example.

Rev Dr Philip opens by citing Laura Dodsworth’s excellent book, A State of Fear: How the UK Government weaponised fear during the Covid-19 pandemic, where she superbly details the rise of the ‘behavioural scientists’, or as she prefers to call them, ‘unelected psychocrats‘ who populated the unit known as SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies), and who literally functioned as a ‘Nudge Unit’ that deployed nudge theory to manipulate a frightened public to get them to do what they wanted them to do and behave how they wanted them to behave, without recourse to “science” but psychology (watch a great little review of the book by an Anglican vicar here, also see here for further reading). Dodsworth herself explains that the British government is a world leader in this Psy-ops, using SPI-B advisors and exports this concept all around the world. Furthermore, “in Autumn 2020, I noticed 10 new behavioural science roles advertised in the NHS and Public Health England” writes Dodsworth. Quoting Cass Sunstein who coined the phrase she says, “…we make it easier for [people] to choose what is best for them, their families and society.” Oh do you now? For more insights watch the interview by three Anglican vicars with Lord Frost and why he resigned over further damaging lockdowns and other Covid responses by the UK Government.

Isn’t it interesting that Monkey Pox is in the news. Dr John Campbell, outlines some interesting data in a new video published on 31st May that recorded over a million views in 24 hours. Sourced from sciencedirect.com, he quotes directly from Virologica Sinica, the official journal of the Chinese Society for Microbiology and calls them out for a blatant lie, that they cannot source any natural Monkey Pox virus so have to produce a synthetic version, and guess where this is taking place – oh yeah – the Wuhan Institute of Virology – I seem to remember that name from somewhere! Furthermore, this article was published on 28 February 2022, so it’s a matter of record that before the screaming international headlines, Wuhan were monkeying around with a synthetic pox and suddenly, here we are! As Dr Campbell says, “There you go. I think I’ve made my concerns about that clear!” Indeed you have!

With this in mind, it is with prophetic foresight that Philip’s subtitle uses a devastating quote from C. S. Lewis 1958 where he says,

“I dread government in the name of science. That is how tyrannies come in.”

Well here we are, arriving faster than a high speed train, and it seems not many can see what is happening. Lewis was right then and he’s even more right now. I wonder what the comparison to Hezekiah in 2 Kings 20:12-21 is, where Isaiah the prophet tells the King that all he has including goods and family, will be carried away to Babylon at some point in the future. Hezekiah replied to the prophet Isaiah,

“The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?”

In a wonderful piece of anecdotal evidence, Philip also cites from a letter written in July 1968 by his father, where he had written about a proposal that the House of Lords be abolished and replaced with a … ‘House of Scientists’ – we really have to wake up to this present and very real danger that once this type of power is given away, opens the door to the tyranny Lewis spoke of and human history proves, that will destroy the immediate futures of one or two generations.

And I limit it to one or two generations, because what is going on really is evil, and the prinicipalities and powers that the Bible speaks of really are at work in this. But God always sets limits on evil. Love always wins and truth always outs in the end. In the meantime the Church needs to ditch, as Philip says, her pietism and quietism, and stand up for the things of a holy God in the public square as well as the private sanctuary.

Read the whole article here.

Cartoon by Bob Moran.

(If you think the Happy Bug Meal is far fetched in Bob’s cartoon, this news item came out of Wales only last week – the other images are obvious).