Man Against Darkness

In 1948, Stace wrote an influential essay, Man Against Darkness, for The Atlantic
Review in which he examined religion. He concluded that the spirit of
scientific enquiry (rather than scientific discoveries themselves) has
furthered religious scepticism by undermining the teleological presumption of an ultimate 'final cause'.
Concern with divine purpose of events had been replaced by
investigation into what had caused them; the new imaginative picture of
the world was dominated by the idea that life is purposeless and
meaningless. The effects of this change included moral relativity, the
individualisation of morality, and the loss of belief in free will