What does the word "these" mean?

This constitutive element of the modern world (man, as the producer of rational hypotheses) and its articulation with the ideology of techno-scientific progress and the development of the machine that transforms the methods and theories of natural sciences, (1) arming (2) these with new tools and constantly (1) renovating their research and experimental capabilities, finally led to the replacement of religious and metaphysical dogmas by the blind faith to the dogma of technical and scientific progress. (source: The Self-criticism of Science) The sentence is from a book called the Self-criticism of Science. I have been trying to understand what the sentence is saying but I am still having a hard time understanding it. Basically, I have two questions on the underlined parts. Underlined words (1): I think that arming & renovating seem to be participial construction, which modifies the verb transforms. Then, what connotation do arming & renovating have, I mean, do they mean "While/As" "And" or "After"? Underlined word (2): What does the word these imply? I think they refer to "the methods and theories of natural sciences", which are located right before the underlined word "arming." I am not sure though. Could you help me clarify it? Thanks. Edit: Changed 'do' to 'does' in header. CJ