Remodern science

Remodernism is a growing movement of artists and filmmakers who oppose post-modernism and its cynical and ironic attitudes and seek to renew the vision of early modernism, emphasizing the spiritual and expressive dimensions of art. See their manifesto here. What is interesting is the rejection of late modernism and its denouement in post-modernism. Something similar may be happening in science.

In art, modernism began in the early 20th century. In culture generally, modernism goes back further, at least to the early 19th century, as with Paul Johnson’s The Birth of the Modern: World Society 1815-1830. Modern science is often considered to begin with Galileo and Newton in the 17th century. Later, in the 19th century science separated from philosophy and the humanities, joined the practical arts, and became professionalized and institutionalized.

Science in the 20th century became an industry doing the bidding of the state and its political regime. As state secularism became more and more state-sponsored atheism, materialism, and naturalism, so science became more and more meaningless. Instead of trying to understand nature, science focused on mere manipulation of nature and the technological imperative (“if it can be built, it must be built”).

People are more and more opposed to this dominant science as it carries water for the political class and promotes a post-modern view of life that makes knowledge worthless and the search for truth impossible. One answer is to return to the vision of early modernity with their authentic search for truth. Intelligent design and neo-creationism are part of this remodern approach which seeks to reconnect science with the humanities and with theology.