Sir

The editorial on The X Files made some excellent points — especially about the rigour of Mulder and Scully's investigative methods (Nature, 394, 815; 1998). The editorial went on: “The popularity of The X Files suggests that the public clearly has more of a feeling for the spirit of scientific enquiry than some give it credit for”.

Although I would like to believe this statement, I think it is false. The success of The X Files is part of a popular reaction against science. Many cultures (particularly in the West) are increasingly secular, and there is a prevailing feeling that there is no longer any mystery that science cannot elucidate. The X Files offers the comforting spectacle of science not coming up with answers — in fact, of frequently falling flat on its face. The programme's massive popularity results much more from the decline of the church (formerly a wellspring of mysticism), and scientific rumours of an imminent ‘Theory of Everything’, than from a true spirit of scientific enquiry.