In addition, certainly in the christian world, scientists were burnt/tortured for being 'devil worshippers' etc for their work which obviosuly went against religious thought at the time. Also a lot of scientific work was 'buried' if it was contentious.

As I said before - the god's 'chemistry set' idea I can work with but when relgion starts trying to be scientific its gets silly.

Just because a lot of people believe in something doesn't neccesaryily means its true, e.g santa, tooth fairy's etc.