I religions really different from science?

As a young Mathematics graduate I was sure that life and nature can be mathematically described by a set of axioms which unfortunately are unknown yet. I remember feeling good just because of the confidence that the world can be described in predictable manner therefore I have full control of my life (provided this set of axioms will be discovered). The beauty of pure abstract Mathematics was alluring and I indulged in studying the most abstract subjects.

I can not understand why I decided to study applied Mathematics but this decision changed my life. Suddenly I noticed that even for very simple nature phenomena very crude modeling was applied. Initially I believed that somewhere a really accurate model exists but later I was not sure anymore.

As a young Mathematics graduate I was sure that life and nature can be mathematically described by a set of axioms which unfortunately are unknown yet. I remember feeling good just because of the confidence that the world can be described in predictable manner therefore I have full control of my life (provided this set of axioms will be discovered). The beauty of pure abstract Mathematics was alluring and I indulged in studying the most abstract subjects.

I can not understand why I decided to study applied Mathematics but this decision changed my life. Suddenly I noticed that even for very simple nature phenomena very crude modeling was applied. Initially I believed that somewhere a really accurate model exists but later I was not sure anymore. Finally I realized that my believe in power of Mathematical modeling was a simple substitute for religious faith. Like the true believers I found comfort in a religion (this time called Mathematics) that served as a solid anchor in a chaotic world.

Later in my life I changed profession to computer programming. One day someone showed me an article that drafted an ingenious algorithm for solving formidable set of equations using a pure statistical methods. Initially I could not accept that some probabilistic methods are as good as pure mathematical reasoning but I was honest enough to admit that my "religion" is probably wrong. Since then I was left without a religion living in chaotic world doubting all. Now I only can envy the people that choose to blindly stick with some faith never asking real questions.

Unfortunately most scientists are not better than the religious fanatics. Just look at people involved in "string" theories, inventing new worlds with many dimensions that obviously has no supporting evidence and worse there is no way to prove or disapprove them. They just play around with Mathematics pretending (or believing) that product of their imagination has any relationship with real world.