Science is absolutely not a religion. It has nothing to do with the supernatural in any form. Any deference to authority in science discussions is because that authority has done the work to prove their assertions and that work can be followed by anyone with sufficient will to the source, e.g. do the experiments themselves. Religion's deference to authority hits a brick wall at the point anyone asks "why" or "how". Most religious adherents can't even explain why they believe the way they do except with a "just because" or "that's how I was raised", there is no fundamental rationalism built into religion like there is with science. There are many scientists who are deeply religious but science as a group is absolutely not religious in any sense of the word.