Based on other things

I was listening to NPR today and heard the story about Obama rescinding the Bush administration's ban on funding stem cell research. The reporter said that people suspect that a lot of Bush administration policies in this area were not based on science but "other things." These other things were not mentioned by name, but it was obvious that the reporter had nothing but disdain for those "other things."

Could those "other things" be faith and morals? Who needs those when you have science? The idea that one's religious convictions should be kept at home as if in a shoe box is ridiculous.