It dismays me but doesn't surprise me that Mirage adopts a sort of smug superiority very common in the genre which invites the reader to share a laugh in the dull foolishness of science (via dull foolish government types like Shidehara and Sakaki), which it posits as being so rigid and blind that it can't see what's happening right in front of its nose, viz: the supernatural.

I strongly condemn this view; it's slander, and it is in fact harmful in the real world, which requires more science, and urgently--not less.

What science isn't: a more boring religion stripped of all wonder and mystery.

What science is: (from Wikipedia) "a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe." It builds axioms and models of the reality we live in to allow us better understand it, and it is both self-correcting and self-updating via the scientific method. Science, in direct contrast to religion, shows its work. It doesn't require faith; it invites you to verify its findings for yourself.

In the universe of Mirage, the supernatural would be science. In a world where magic is openly practiced and has reached the level of ritual, i.e. repeatable phenomena manifested through a known set of steps, science would be all over that shit. Science is a tool for describing reality, and if that reality includes magic, then magic would be encompassed by science.

In the real world, where we, alas, can't ask gods and buddhas to bestow their blessings on us on demand, the hard work of science is necessary to help us meet big challenges like climate change. But then again, at least we live in a world where we already know sticking virgins into holes in the ground doesn't help anything.