It is a deliberate distortion of science, which is first and foremost a method and certainly not a philosophy of life. Science is a means of understanding the universe in its parts. As it is practiced today, it is even a very limited means, which can give us partially meaningful answers to only some of our questions about specific aspects of existence. It clearly has no spiritual function. Science has been called the Western form of Yoga, but this is misleading.
Science offers no insight into higher realities, never mind the transcendental Reality.
It has no saving function. By its own definition, science is concerned with the finite realm of phenomena. It cannot touch the Noumenon. Good scientists, like Einstein and Newton, saw this. But good scientists seem to be relatively scarce.