Originally Posted by DontRunMeOver

Science is largely a type of religion. Sciences like geology, anatomy and whatever you call the study of crystals might be largely based on empirical data that we can observe (in other words, facts) but the more 'fundamental' sciences of physics and chemistry mostly revolve around concepts like atoms, electrons, wave-particle duality, energy levels and interpretation of spectra and analytical reactions which are actually very abstract and probably not very close to the truth at all. These sciences are based on models, not 'realities' or 'facts'. They are simplifications of what is actually going on concieved so that humans can try to understand it and can attempt to use the models to achieve what they want.

In order to practise science you have to have faith in the models, the 'assumptions' of which could just as easily be called 'beliefs'... this can involve believing that the models are actually realistic accounts of what is going on, or accepting that they aren't actually correct but that they can give guidelines which you can follow to do what you need to do.

So in my opinion science is itself a religion. It's not necessarily exclusive of the other religions but it certainly gets a lot more done.