Ideas based in religion and philosophy have been used to advance science by some of the brightest minds in the last century; an excellent example is Dr. von Neumann.
For further information on Dr. von Neumann:
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As an enormous contributor to pure and applied mathematics, Dr. von Neumann gained notoriety early in his life for his work in set theory, algebra, and quantum mechanics. At the age of 20, he published the definition of ordinal numbers that is still used today. He also developed the "theory of automata," which compared the computing abilities of a machine with that of a human brain.
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See URL:
http://www.thirteen.org/bigideas/neumann.html
His proposal that all numbers could be bootstrapped out of the empty set by the operations of the mind is a mathamatical use of a religious concept, (non-substantiality, void or emptiness; one of the foundations of Mahayana Buddhist thought).
The idea of Absolutely Nothing combines this Buddhist concept of Sunyata and Plato's ideas on Absolutes to produce a functional, scientific, theory of everything; called "Your Basic Crackpot Theory of Everything". This theory is founded on the basic paradoxical duality, (Absolutely Everything & Absolutely Nothing coexisting simultaneously, together, intricately intertwined).
Attempts to describe Absolutely Nothing usually include the fact that it doesn't and cannot exist, yet it exists. The failure to recognize that Absolutely Nothing exists, as a viable entity, causes many flawed viewpoints and the inability to truly finalize a T.o.E, (Theory of Everything).
The idea of Absolutely Nothing existing as an entity is science.