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>Science has faith at its foundations as well. Science puts faith in a few
>fundamental assumptions -- universality, inductive proofs, etc...
>The difference between a science and a religion is that science does
>everything it can possibly do to minimize the amount of faith needed.
>Religions are generally based on faith in excess.
>
Another difference: scientific theories that depend on faith are conditional - "if the mass in the universe is less then X, the universe will continue to expand forever". Religious faith, if it were to make the same statment, would make it more like "the universe will expand forever, and if you point out any evidence to the contrary, you are engaging in blasphemy". Science is "I think this is true, I'll make the assumption that it is until I find out otherwise", religion is "this is true, and that's all there is too it". Of course, sometimes people treat science as if it were religion, for example in rejecting a theory which explains all the evidence but which goes against all standards (relativity was received like this when it was first proposed).