Humanism certainly drove scientific progress. But as Yuval Harari points out in Homo Deus, the universe that science discovered threatens humanists with the existential realization of life's absurdity. For example, science showed either that there's no God or that God is a thoroughly inhuman figure. Neither is comforting or helpful in sustaining the noble lies that prop up our dominant cultures that keep the peace. The clash is between humanistic pride in our nature and in our progress, and the inhuman scale of the cosmos.