Did science beat religion?

I don't understand why the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill debate has been seen as a victory of science over religion.

I admit that I don't understand much about science and that I fall into the religious camp. I have been a Methodist local preacher for over 30 years, and I am firmly in the evangelical wing of the Methodist church. In the unlikely event that any party had adopted me and any constituency had voted for me to be their MP, I would have supported all but one of the controversial clauses.

I don't like abortion, I wish that abortion never happened. It must be a traumatic experience for any woman who goes through it, but I believe that we have a Christian duty to allow women to terminate unwanted pregnancies. The how many weeks argument was a farce. Those who wanted to reduce the time limit to 22 or 20 weeks were liars. They were people who oppose abortion and would have had more credibility if they stood by their guns and just said no to all abortions rather than trying to fiddle the numbers of weeks.

I don't see the problem with saviour siblings, as long as the saviour child is also wanted in his/her self and will be loved and cherished by the family as an individual, and not just as a tool to save big brother.

There is something quite ychi about mixing human and animal cells, but if it is done under strict guidance for specific reasons and is ultimately beneficial, I can't see the argument that it is in anyway unchristian.

The only clause that I have doubts about is the no father one. And those doubts are secular rather than religious.

My great grandmother was an "industrial accident", a child born to a prostitute. It is bloody annoying not knowing, and not being able to know, who her father was. She didn't suffer in any way by not having a father. But I wish that I knew who he was.

I have no problems with both parents in a same sex couple having full parenting rights, but I do doubt that their rights should over-ride their children, grand children and great grand children etc being denied an honest genealogy.

The idea that passing the bill somehow equated to Scientist 4 Christians 0 and the death of religion, as some have claimed, requires a huge leap of faith that I would not be willing to jump.