Paradoxically, although science has contributed to the decline of religious authority, science too has seen its standing decline, especially in the last three decades of the twentieth century. The fruits of scientific research — whether they be nuclear weapons and nuclear power, the application of fossil fuels, or the manipulation of genetics — appear morally ambiguous. Hence science itself, instead of emerging as a surrogate for religion, has faced challenges to its authority, notably from those claiming access to nonrational forms of knowledge.
– A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America (2013), p. 21
Indeed, conspiracy theorists insist on being judged by the very canons of proof that are used in the world they despise and distrust, the world of academia and the intelligentsia. For all its claims to populism, conspiracy theory yearns to be admitted to the precincts where it imagines the conspirators themselves dwell.
– Ibid., p. 29
А сейчасъ жреческій авторитетъ науки, кажется, наоборотъ, усиливается, параллельно съ ирраціонализаціей ея самой.