the naturalization of science, or the scientization of nature, whereby no spirits were to be sought, found, or (for some eventually even suspected to be) discoverable in nature, lead to our time of the experience or belief in the awesome (the cliche:"awe-inspiring"), the incomprehensible vastness, the marvelous, wonder, beauty, even the mystery ("Mystery") of the universe being devoided of "God" (as Creator, 'Hierarchic Supervisor'').
the incredible, vast, awesome universe, which otherwise before might have inspired of the power, majesty and goodness of "God", as the (now) king(less)doms of nature once upon a time did, now "inspires" -- if that -- of a mystery.
and whereas for some God was the Great Mystery, now it is the Physical World, the Physical Universe...which is expanding beyond an infinitude which even Newton (or Pascal or T. Huxley or Nietzsche) might have found credible.
the universe had already become "lonely" enough, and for a demystified few, meaningless enough, without learning during the past century (and also decade) that our vast galaxy is itself a minor location -- whether divinely, mysteriously, or merely materially conceived.
-- journal extracts in reaction to reading in Wouter Hanegraaff's Esotericism and the Academy (2012)
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