Science and religion will never agree except insofar as both concern rhythm and number; number, essential to science, can be conceptualised in a rhythmic form—otherwise, the two principles will always contradict each other. Religion works because it poeticises the world; and this is not just some “added extra” or a pleasant aesthetic exercise—it actually allows us to access the divine (it has to be seen to be believed). Science is an analytical activity—it breaks down complex patterns into data for analysis; hence it breaks down the poetic rhythms, the intricate patterns, that we use to summon the gods.
Our contemporary world is over layered by the false music—the music of technology, the profane rhythm that only concerns problem-solving and so breaks up intricate patterns. To those who find it hard to credit that poetry (music) can change reality, remember these two factors: firstly, in the contemporary scientific worldview no claims are made about what is “out there”—atoms are not “out there”, atoms are a model in our mind (and what is out there is a Kantian Ding an sich—or, in American, “dang, that’s sick”); so science itself is pretty mysterious when it comes down to it, could be characterised as “patterns in our mind”; secondly, poetic and musical patterns are in no way different—what is a metaphor but a “model of reality”, in its own way (and the same goes for an allusion)? Of course, the analytical mind is sceptical about the metaphor pattern—but confident about the “atom pattern”…
These worldviews are opposed—and it makes sense because “life is strife”. Your first naïve intuition about politics was correct: the left is for “science”, the right is for “religion” (which includes sophisticated art that maintains intricate patterns for their own sake—not just as a wet ass pussy to wipe over your automobile’s windscreen, as in pop music). As science and technology make us richer, they also break up patterns—and make our lives meaningless.