You know if you look back in the 1930s the money went to infrastructure. The bridges the municipal buildings the roads those were all built with stimulus money spent on infrastructure. This stimulus bill has fundamentally gone started out with a $500 rebate check remember. That went to buy flat-screen TVs made in China.
For me science is already fantastical enough. Unlocking the secrets of nature with fundamental physics or cosmology or astrobiology leads you into a wonderland compared with which beliefs in things like alien abductions pale into insignificance.
I also think we need to maintain distinctions - the doctrine of creation is different from a scientific cosmology and we should resist the temptation which sometimes scientists give in to to try to assimilate the concepts of theology to the concepts of science.
Religion is part of the human make-up. It's also part of our cultural and intellectual history. Religion was our first attempt at literature the texts our first attempt at cosmology making sense of where we are in the universe our first attempt at health care believing in faith healing our first attempt at philosophy.