Real-world sensitivities and game names

[MaxWilson]

thejeff said:

It's also a very nice definition for theists who don't want to actually deal with other's arguments. "The basic tenets of science have to be taken on faith, so that's just your religion." "Atheism is just another religious belief." etc, etc.
(I'm not saying that's your intent, but I've run into it often enough that I'm wary.)
It's more useful to leave religion dealing with God and have other words for other types of philosophical worldviews.

Isn't the above definition what people are trying to say, though, when they say that science is "just another religious belief"? If you actually engaged their arguments you would acknowledge that science is based on certain assumptions, lay out the fundamental premises upon which science is based (empirical, repeatable experiment is the best way of reaching conclusions; the universe is basically reductionist, you can make conclusions about universal phenomena from local observations) and ask if they bought into those premises. You might then be able to have a reasonable discussion. Instead you dismiss their argument because to you "religion == God" and so "science is a religious belief" is simply gibberish to you. I think this is missing the point...

-Max