Most but not all who are serious about science show little or no desire for religion.
This is an interesting thought. Before we can look for statistics to back it up, we need to know what a serious scientist thinks about, and the attitude he has as he does his scientific investigation.
For example, Stephen Hawking put together the theory for the Big Bang. Among the questions about his attitude, and the attitudes of other scientists, regarding the BB are:
1. Do they consider it a theory?
2. Do they actually believe that this is what happened?
3. Have they missed anything, and do they know it?
4. Could the Beginning have happened another way?
5. What facts do they have that the Beginning could not have happened any other way?
6. Are they really reasonably certain or the age of the universe for a fact?
Even though a scientist can postulate a Beginning for the Universe like the Big Bang, until we have a working time viewer that shows what really happened, the BB is a fictional possibility, only. There can be any number of theories postulated for the way the Beginning happened.
The point is, science is full of theories, but few facts about those theories that make the theories really probable, and fewer still that make them close to fact. Thus, the theories are fictional regarding reality. Yet, often the theories are so employed among scientists and laymen who follow them, that they seem to come into the position of reality in the minds of these people.
What is it called when someone believes something to be fact, when it has not been proven to be fact? Seems to me this approaches the idea of religion, albeit regarding science, often a religion without a god. And, certainly, scientists like Stephen Hawking are very serious about the things they believe.
Until we define what a serious scientist is like, and defined what serious science is, how do we know that religion isn't the basis for science? even though it may not be formally called a religion, or even though it may not be similar to religion that exists except among scientists?