Materialism's search for Magic

At times materialist's will make the charge that religion is just a belief in magic. To say that the human mind is non-material, in this view, is the same as believing in pixie dust. The ironic thing is that religion is what stops me from believing in magic and is what the materialist is in fact searching for. Let me quote C.S. Lewis to make this point.

There is something which unites magic and applied science while separating both from the wisdom of earlier ages. For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality, and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue. For magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men: the solution is a technique. (The Abolition of Man)