Inasmuch as society cannot go on without discipline of some kind men were constrained in the absence of any other form of discipline to turn to discipline of the military type.
But the power of science lies in open publication which with the rise of the Internet is no longer constrained by the price of paper.
Only weeks after Oslo began when nearly all the world and most of Israel was drunk with the idea of peace I argued that a Palestinian society not constrained by democratic norms would be a fear society that would pose a grave threat to Israel.
Whether one believes or not religion is as real a force in the life of the world as economics or politics and it demands fair-minded attention. Even if you think the entire religious enterprise is at best misguided and at worst counterproductive it remains vital inspiring great good and sometimes great evil.