A common defense of science in the science versus religion conflict is that scientific theories are provisional while religion uses dogma that is not subject to revision or abandonment even when that dogma is proven to be absolutely absurd and false. This defense is just one indicator that science is a real search for truth while religion is not, but it exaggerates the extent of provisionality in science. Not all scientific theories are provisional.

Consider the theories of mathematics (an important science). These theories are not provisional, they are absolute. It is the mathematical proof–the central concern of all mathematics–that makes the absoluteness of mathematical theories possible.

I suppose that one could say that a mathematical result is provisional in the sense that there might be an error in its proof, but that type of provisionality only applies to newer results that still require scrutiny. Yes, there are errors that haven't been noticed in the proofs of some older results, but these unknown errors do not cause something like, say, calculus to be provisional in the way that, say, quantum mechanics is provisional.

Perhaps one could try to place provisionality on the axioms of a mathematical theory, but the problem here is that axioms are neither true nor false, they are merely statements from which consequences are derived via mathematical proofs.

It is a mistake to conflate provisionality and completeness as many supporters of religion do. The results of number theory are absolutely true, but there are many things about numbers that remain unknown. For instance, whether or not the number of twin primes (primes that are within two units of another prime) is infinite is an open question.

Some try to preserve the scientific theories are provisional claim by excluding mathematics from the sciences, but that is absurd. Verifiability, falsifiability, and other features essential to any science are features of mathematics.

Absoluteness doesn't just occur in the science of mathematics either. The fact that a molecule of water consists of one hydrogen atom and two oxygen atoms is indisputable. The theory explaining this fact is not provisional. While this theory doesn't explain everything about water, any future additions to the theory will be expansions of it and not revisions to the basic mechanisms which explain how water and other molecules are formed.

That much of science is provisional is a strength, but it is important to represent the edifice of science accurately by acknowledging that a large part of science is absolute.

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