We needn't oversimplify and say that science is another religion. Science is a set of institutions that are united by a humanistic, progressive ideology or culture (and also divided by some petty tribalism, like any culture). Currently, many physicists are united by scientistic arrogance, stemming from the theological aspects of string theory, as Lee Smolin says.

Scientific knowledge is certainly real. The models work as approximations, given their scope. I'm suggesting, though, that they work mainly in letting us track, measure, and exploit patterns, rather than enabling us to understand them philosophically and intuitively. Objectification is a cynical, imperial strategy to foster dominance.

Now, nature may be counterintuitive, in which case we need to expand our minds to cope with our existential condition. That expansion will take more than memorizing scientific equations and models, and slaving away in a lab.