JTS, No offense taken. My intended response was that I am wary about changing a translation, muddled or not.

I understood the quote to mean religion was "science and philospohy" before they came onto their own. And, the Christian religion had an extreme influence on both at that point in time, on scientific thinking in the early and "transition years" (as I suspect earlier religions did also in earlier years).

Here are two related quotes, from early Christian science minds:

""By denying scientific principles, one may maintain any paradox.""
Galileo Galilei

""Behind The truth of our faith becomes a matter of ridicule among the infidels if any Catholic, not gifted with the necessary scientific learning, presents as dogma what scientific scrutiny shows to be false."" Thomas Aquinas