There was a split in the 1500s’ during the Enlightenment between who controlled science as we know it today. ( It was called ‘Natural Philosophy’ at the time.) Material knowledge became controlled by secular scientists while spiritual matters were controlled by the church. Modern Enlightenment thinking is plagued by this split in knowledge, and although much work has gone into trying to reconcile the two systems of knowledge, no one has ever fixed this split. With this epistemological problem, it is impossible to discuss spiritual matters scientifically. They are two different systems of knowledge that after 500 years of development, don’t logically work together.