Does the scientific method rely on belief and could it be classified as a belief system like religion

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The scientific *method*, as formulated, is pretty pure and useful. I would say it doesn't rely on belief, except inasmuch as you must believe that it works to want to use it.

The scientific *community*, however, is a different story. Scientists, after all, are human and humans have biases and blind spots. Science / learning science generally comes with belief patterns that are pure indoctrination with no bases, such as that of naturalism.

You can't even *investigate* the parapsychological without becoming a pariah in the scientific community, whether you actual generate positive results or not. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw_O9Qiwqew

One other point: that the scientific method is so useful in coming to correct beliefs and discharging incorrect beliefs, doesn't imply that science is the *only* valid way to come to beliefs, nor does it imply that science can be used to answer any (meaningful) question of any kind; its very specificity as a mode of determining knowledge implies its own limitations re scope of questions it applies to.