LH,

"I regard science's less self-aware and more vociferously close-minded aherents as being religious about science. Their attitude about it is religious."

If you are referring to non-belief then you are missing the whole point. You can't be religious about science because it is ever changing without fixed principles. In a religion, there are absolutes. Religious belief does not change with new information. Science is in constant motion and scientists do not approach it with religious awe. They know that today's theory might be obsolete with new information.

If you were to poll the top scientists in the country you would find that the majority of good ones are non-believers.
Einstein was one of them.

It is not close-minded to expect that absolute statements should be backed up by evidence.

Close-mindedness is a product of denying that new information exists. Non-believers do not do this. Most agnostics and atheists are open to new information when it is credible and not based on someone's untested "experience".

Frank Hamilton