Francis Bacon dreamed of abolishing disease, natural disasters, and chance itself. He also dreamed of abolishing God. Bacon hid this latter dream in New Atlantis (1626), a posthumous novella that may be read as a map for modernity, a book of prophecies, or a grimoire. New Atlantisbegan a secret literary debate, one later taken up by Jonathan Swift, Alan Moore, and Eiichiro Oda. Across four centuries, these writers wondered: Will science summon or suppress the Antichrist?
On the surface, Bacon presented modern science as wholly compatible with Christianity. He wrote in Novum Organum that “nature unveils her secrets only under the torture of experimentation,” a slightly more violent articulation of God’s instruction to “have dominion over . . . every living thing that moveth upon the earth” (Gen. 1:28). Bacon quoted scripture with such fluency and erudition that few question his faith today. He presented his plan to unveil nature’s secrets by means of empirical experimentation and inductive reasoning as a continuation of God’s revelation, endowing us with “new mercies” to relieve our estate.