I watched a rather disturbing program this evening which attempted to show through metaphor why science was a religious subject by focusing on atheist beliefs and then associating those with science.
Hmmm.
This was tabloid TV at its worst, with a lack of any form of neutrality and a blatant agenda.
God is not a provable concept - it is outside the realm of physical reality. It is a matter of faith whether you believe in God or not, and if you do believe which version of religion you accept.
The one common fact is that all these faith systems are absolute in the belief of that faith. Atheism is also a faith based system, it is the absolute belief that God does not exist.
So what has this got to do with science? Nothing at all.
Science is a reason based system using principles of falsification, testability, the realm of reality (that which is physically observable), empirical observations, non-absolutes, usefulness and predictions.
There is no conflict between Science and Religion - they do not touch on the same things. There is of course conflict between Pro God and Non God (atheist) beliefs.
Now to Darwinism. Evolutionary theory is currently the best scientific model for explaining the origin of species.
ID (intelligent design) however is a faith based system which is not testable, falsifiable or limited to the realm of reality (it invokes an intelligent creator). It is simply put not science.
This doesn't mean that ID is wrong, or that God does not exist - it simply means that those are questions for religion not science.
So,
Does god exist? Well that's outside the scope of science.
Is science a religion? No.
Is atheism a religion? Yes.
Is science atheist? No, it's agnostic to the matter.
