I liked Erdricks description, It was very diplomatic :)

Agreed. And point taken: the issue of belief in science isn't necessarily that the scientists "just believe" in their work, its that the public doesn't generally have the time/ability/desire to verify what the scientist says. So at the level of the layperson, it becomes a matter of trust/faith.

While science is somewhat belief based (and the public "faith" in science is even more so), the very nature of the scientific method limits science only to beliefs that can be tested.

Matters of faith, by their very nature, cannot be tested. Does God exist? Science cannot say one way or another since no one has devised a way to test the theory. Did a spider exist 50 million years ago? Likely yes (with a certain degree of certainty which a scientist would have indicated but which was probably left out of the article).

It is understandable that folks brought up to believe without question would have a hard time with a belief system that is all about questioning our beliefs. I'm content to think that is a 53 million year old spider and content to be proven wrong about it later.

I should add that it may help that I dont see my eternal salvation as being dependent on being right about this point.