The problem was Descartes. But the author of the article got wrong what the problem was that descartes presented. Descartes was a follower of Michael Servetus who can be counted by some as the first martyr for modern science. He was among the last polymaths in the 1500’s who learned all there was to know. A century later the amount of information grew so large it was impossible to learn all there was to know. In science servetus was known for his book on the human body. In religion he was known for taking the low view of christ. Calvin had Servetus burned at the stake for this heresy. The low view of christ—that he is just a man— is the view of unitarians and soto voce the liberal protestants and also the liberal side of the catholic church. The low view of christ—again—that he was just a man—was considered the modern elite view of christ in the 18th and 19th centuries. the founders divided on this issue. Adams and Jefferson took the low view of christ —whereas the Madison coterie believed the traditional view. That Jesus is fully God and fully man.
The problem with the low view of christ is that it turns the central mystery of Christianity into a human sacrifice. That is, something really creepy that renders its adherents the most pitiful of all men—as St Paul put it.
Descartes dictum was that “man is the measure of all things.” this was the greeks of Plato’s republic motto. They applied it to their gods. This view was what st paul encountered when he was in athens. St Paul scandalized the greek epicurean and stoic philosphers he encountered in athens because his main point was that God is the measure of all things.
Descartes Motto never the less — led people to believe that man is the measure of all things —including God. That’s when the logical took over. If man is the measure of all things then that must include the God of the bible. Since God is measurable -then therefor God cannot be God. There for, there is no God. And man sits on the throne of grace. (which is a very very bad place to be.)
So within Christianity —elite opinion rendered the central mystery a human sacrifice. Outside of Christianity the larger population became increasingly atheistic.
All this was enshrined in the academy by decartes who created the academic system of knowledge. you can still descartes tree of knowledge. at the root is metaphysics, the trunk is philosophy. the branches are the various discipline: math, chemistry, biology etc. On one small branch was witchcraft and theology.
Descartes got the picture wrong. The roots were witchcraft, astrology divination god worship and all manner of primitive systems of cause and effect.
Philosphy properly reins over the primitive systems of cause and effect.
Theology doesn’t belong on descartes tree at all. Why not? Because God is the measure of all things. Think of the difference as being something like William Blake’s picture of man point to God and God pointing to man.
But Descartes wouldn’t have recognized that this was the effect of his philosophy. It was the context, how he was received, trends in lower intellectual orders, especially influential was J.J. Rousseau’s view of self-centered man as fundamentally noble.