Is science like a religion?

     Now, of course, in its ideal state, science should nothing like a religion. Science is supposed to be about recognizing large scale patterns, about reproducible results, and about useful predictions. Religion is about dogma, about facts determined by decree, and about coercing minds. I know; I will have readers thinking, "Sure other religions are like that; but my faith is different."
     Science, as implemented by scientists has become bulky and resistant to challenge. Entering into science now requires years of study that induce the student to think in the same old patterns. Part of this is unavoidable. Without years of study, people would be continually "reinventing the wheel." But it has a drawback. Truly innovative ideas and grand discoveries need a fresh mind. After years of training in one way of looking at the world, most people will find it difficult or impossible to look at it any other way.
     So modern science now comes with its own untestable dogmas. Large-scale evolution is one of those dogmas. It is an extrapolation of small-scale evolution (which can be tested) but there is really no way to know how far out the model remains effective. We cannot conduct a billion-year experiment. There is also "string theory" which is touted highly but does not not deserve the name theory. From what I have read they still cannot concieve of an experiment to test it in any way. It, therefore, belongs to the class of ideas that are "not even wrong."