obscurantism
noun /ˌɒbskjuˈræntɪzəm/
/ɑːbˈskjʊrəntɪzəm/
[uncountable] (formal)- the practice of deliberately preventing somebody from understanding or discovering something
- Religious prejudice and scientific obscurantism have been closely entangled throughout the whole history of this debate.
Word Originmid 19th cent.: from earlier obscurant, denoting a person who obscures something, via German from Latin obscurant- ‘making dark’, from the verb obscurare.