Recently I engaged in yet another cycle of debate with someone who insists that science is a religion.
This is a tiresome argument on one level because it is one with all sorts of things that fall under the category of “I know it when I see it.” But on another level, it’s a rather interesting question. Not that science itself, as practiced by people who understand it or appreciated by those who don’t practice it but at least have a grasp of its nature, is a religion, but certainly people make religions out of all sorts of things. So the question arises, what are the necessary and sufficient constituent elements of religion? …