And my point, Jack, is that there was no intention either in the original quotation or in my ironic response to it, to replace religion with science - 'twas just a light-hearted riff.

I don't feel the need to replace religion with anything - depending on how you interpret the word "replace". I've always personally felt that religion is a perversion and a nonsense which gets in the way of reason, and which - in its various manifestations - has caused more trouble in this world than anything else. I've felt that way since I was a child and nothing I've seen or heard of religion since then has ever prompted me to change that view.

On second thoughts, perhaps we could replace religion with common sense.