We navigate the world with maps; we navigate the mental world with mental maps, which are connected to our language in complex ways. These maps are absolutely vital, but we have to remember that the map is not the ground. The map bears some relationship to the ground - we hope - but it is useful to us precisely because it ignores a great deal.
I constantly hear people making claims: "Science does this", "Religion does that", "Philosophy does something else". And there is often some truth in these observations. But there is also a great deal which is missing. Fundamentally, all such claims are statements about some abstract entity which does not actually exist: 'science' does not exist.
Scientists exist, and they are as varied as any other group of humans; they engage in a wide variety of activities, from filling in grant research applications to arguing about competing theories with colleagues, to conducting experiments, to writing and re-writing research papers, to speaking at gatherings, and much more. All this activity can be influenced by all the usual factors which influence human activity - curiosity, pride in doing a good job, ambition, jealousy, politics, integrity, caution, and all the rest. All of these things contribute to scientific activity, just they contribute to religious activity or philosophical activity.
Which is not to pretend that scientific activity is indistinguishable from religious or philosophical activity. But it does mean that all such activity is, in the end, human activity, undertaken by fallible but generally well intentioned human beings, (and, sometimes, by foolish or malicious human beings), and therefore they all share a great deal which our mental maps tend to ignore.
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