From The Cult of Alien Gods

 

  "It seems that the core issue at stake in the horror story, like that in the debate over Atlantis and the other lost continents, is the isssue of science versus scientism. The former is a way of learning through experimentation, theorization, and testing. The latter is a dogmatic acceptance that what is known is all that can be known, and the accepted way of knowing is the only way to know. In a philosophical sense, horror tales seem to face a very postmodern struggle: the battle between positivism (scientism) and pure science. The authorities are powerless against the unseen forces because they cannot open their minds to investigate the possibility that the unseen can be real. As a result, institutional authority makes impotent pronouncements of impossibility instead of attempting to apply the methods of science to investigate. Like the heroes of Dracula, only those with open minds can take in all the evidence to supercede the ignorance of institutional science and vanquish the supernatural foe. True science, not scientism, wins the day but at the cost of admitting that there are other Things of which our philosophies cannot dream. Thus are the believers shown to be the true scientists, an appellation that the pseudoscientists of Atlantean or Lemurian persuasions very much wished to have for themselves."

Jason Colavito