I recently wrote this short thought:
"'No amount of failure in the attempt to subject the world of sensible experience to a thorough-going system of conceptions, and to bring all happenings back to cases of immutably valid law, is able to shake our faith in the rightness of our principles. We hold fast to our demand that even the greatest apparent confusion must sooner or later solve itself in transparent formulas. We begin the work ever afresh; and, refusing to believe that nature will permanently withhold the reward of our exertions, think rather that we have hitherto only failed to push them in the right direction. And all this pertinacity flows from a conviction that we have no right to renounce the fulfilment of our task. What, in short[,] sustains the courage of investigators is the force of obligation of an ethical idea.' (Sigwart: Logik, bd. ii., p. 23.)
This is a true account of the spirit of science. Does it essentially differ from the spirit of religion? And is any one entitled to say in advance, that, while the one form of faith shall be crowned with success, the other is certainly doomed to fail?"
—William James, "Reflex Action and Theism" (quoting Christoph von Sigwart, Logik.)
Sigwart, a Logician, is here pointing out the faith felt that the universe can be ordered (and expressed in "transparent formulas"). As Sigwart points out, this faith perserveres despite any amount of failure, and the ethical obligation that drives it is more powerful than any evidence to the contrary. James then points out that this is not so different from the faith faith expressed by the religious. Indeed, a believer in Scientific Progress is not so different than a believer in Religion: both cling to the faith that reality is such-and-such a way, and that the Truth of this can be known by man (to some degree, at least). Can not one, then, have faith in both? Must this be so irrational or irreligious?
For those that don't know, James was a Biological Psychologist, Physiologist, and Philosopher at Harvard. He is famous for his contributions to Psychology and Philosophy.