[KeysrSoze]

1. Sure religion has influenced scientists. In medieval Europe alchemists spent more time petitioning angels in their work than observation and experimentation. The renassance was people trying to pigeonhole various observations into a preconceived natural holy law. Intelligent people are very good at rationalizing what has been ingrained into them since childhood to conform with what they observe. Its just that at the rate we're going there are fewer and fewer gaps "god did it" will fill up.

2. This is better used to refute the claim often made by the religious that complexity cannot come from something less complex. When an anti-evolutionist claims that we couldn't have evolved because of irreducible complexity, a counter arguement is that God could not exist then, because he would be the ultimate irreducibly complex system. And "God has always been" or "God is beyond beginnings and time" is not a response, because then why can't other complex systems "have always been", why would a first cause need to be sentient anyway?, a whole slew of other whys I can think of.

3. See, you're rationalizing a contradictory point and incorporating it into your own world view. "We aren't at the center of the universe as it was believed only a few hundred years ago, we're a speck in an average galaxy in a universe of 100 billion other galaxies? Well, I can live with that, in fact now that I think of it it coincides with my beliefs all along!"