This paper compares the interplay of science and religion in the iFoundation/i series (Isaac Asimov) to the iDune/i series (Frank Herbert). In the iFoundation/i series, science has displaced religion in the future, though religion is present on various planets at various times, but only as a calculated political hoax or a false system of belief and practice. Salvor Hardin passes technological devices off as magical in the Four Kingdoms surrounding Terminus and a naïve priesthood emerges. On Comporellon, Trevise, who is in search of the Second Foundation, is immediately arrested. He meets with First Minister Lizalor and learns that Comporellon is a fundamentalist religious state which regards marriage as a sacrament, condemning the sexual relationship of two of his companions. But in iDune/i, religion and science go hand in hand with Paul Atreides (iMuadib/i) becoming the Dune Messiah, and using his own powers (the voice), the Fremen, sandworms iand/i blasters to defeat House Harkonnen. The religion is later codified and reified following the triumph and disappearance of iMuadib/i. The Fremen and the Bene Gesserit are deeply religious groups who develop narratives to justify their oft times questionable practices. Leto, the son of iMuadib/i, becomes the God Emperor of Dune, half human and half divine. So, in the iDune/i series the power of religion is central from the rise and disappearance of iMuadib/i to the transmogrification of Leto.
A. J. Grant (Mon,) studied this question.