we could speak of the age of the earth, for example. some monk or something calculated it was 6000 years based on the bible, and we ridicule this as preposterous. but, to the average person, the calculation that it is 4.5 billion years old based on the calculations of some geologist or something is not any less authoritative. the monk claims his calculation is based on the evidence in the bible, and he can lay it out with perfectly valid rules of inference. the geologist claims his calculation is based on the evidence in the quarry, and he lays out with the same rules of inference. the differentiation is consequently not actually a discussion of evidence, but a discussion of what evidence is and which evidence is more convincing. they are both basically inferences.
if you understand a little about geological processes, and why digging down a certain way can allow you to estimate how old some rock is by comparison to the rock around it, you're doing science on inferences on empirically gathered evidence. but, if you're reading it out of a book, and you don't have a clue about any of that, then you're not truly interpreting it differently than a kid in sunday school. if anything, the biblical inference is a lot easier to actually understand.
she wasn't able to articulate herself well, and i think that's why the decision was made to move on. but, i think this is kind of an example of the ivory tower not being able to see outside of itself. it's unfortunate, but she is making a valid point: most people are only able to interpret science as a system of statements that they don't fully understand the reasoning behind, and are forced to leave their derivation to experts and then put faith in the veracity of the conclusions of those experts. appeals to the contrary are themselves a sort of faith-based reasoning. and, so, for many people, science becomes just another type of religion.
there's another point to bring up about axiom systems. it's not valid for the entirety of science; it's more about the more obscure theoretical reaches. the classical v. modern physics part is a good way to discuss this. you can do most classical physics with your bare hands; you throw something at a wall and you measure it, or whatever. experiments, observations, results. that's what science is supposed to be, right?
but if you look at relativity, it doesn't work like that. it's an axiomatic system. light shalt move at c in all inertial reference frames. there shalt be no particle that moves faster than c. light shalt have no mass whatsoever. [these are equivalent statements]. and, yes, it's a reasonable assumption, and i offer no empirical contradiction, but put this in your pipe: i don't believe the third assertion. now, what? then i have little faith in the absolute truth of your deductions, even if i'll admit they're probably pretty close.
i'm not going to argue that that brings religion from the brink; rather, i'm going to argue that it puts a lot of what we call science in the realm of what should be called philosophy. kant be damned; it's not how science is supposed to work. and, doing science like this really opens up a lot of valid space for attack.
i'm not convinced that that is what she was getting at, but the truth is that this line between something that is a story and something that makes predictions isn't quite as clear as is being suggested. it's just....
don't look at religion in a better light because of this. rather, be more critical of what we allow ourselves to call science.