Science as a Belief System
I don't think t he opposite of theism can be atheism; the opposite must be a form of agnosticism much like how the polar opposite of Buddhism is not Judaism (per se) even though the two differ on many fundamental points and rely on different fundamental beliefs, or like how two passers-by are not opposites of each other since ultimately they are both human. A belief in the absence of divinity [atheism] is different to an absence of belief divinity [agnosticism], since the former starts from the point of belief. Everything is reliant on a deeper more fundamental philosophical grounding; this is pretty obvious with a traditional religion, or at least the sort of binary view of them. In these cases, the belief in the divine is instrumental for the understanding of phenomena, both metaphysically and physically. The same is true, however, of any belief in science, no matter what the reason is. Indeed, one must first believe in t...