In his book How Shall We Then Live? Francis Schaeffer succinctly tracks intellectual history from the Renaissance to Modernity.

He states:

In the humanism of the High Renaissance, flowing in to maturity through the Enlightenment, man was determined to make himself autonomous. The flow continues, and by the time we come to Modern modern science man himself is devoured: Man as man is dead. Life is pointless, devoid of meaning. (Pg. 148)

What Schaeffer's study in this book shows is the historical folly in Man's attempts to define the world by His own terms. Schaeffer returns again & again to the foolish idea, set forth during the enlightenment, that man can logically construct a worldview that is devoid of God. When Man legitimately tries to do this the only result is chaos.

Food for though!

Michael