If you haven't, I'll wait until you do. It's very brief.
[Waits.]
OK, now that you've read it...
You're telling me that a person pledging to eliminate all forms of belief except his own is not practicing a religion?
You're telling me that a person who believes the best thing he can do for the human race is to promote his belief to the exclusion of all others is not practicing a religion?
You're telling me that someone suggesting a book that agrees with their views should receive the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion is not making a religious statement?
If a Catholic left a meeting of Catholics and said that the only topic under discussion was "should we bash Protestantism and Judaism with a crowbar or only with a baseball bat” would you think they were discussing their religion, or that they were discussing the proper way to rotate their tires?
There are people who maintain that such a religion exists, but all known religions have self-professed believers. As far as I know, no one professes a belief science as a religion.
Imagine how stupid you would think I was if I showed you a video of a Catholic Mass, and then told you that none of those people are really Catholics if they say they aren't. Doesn't matter if they were baptized, doesn't matter if they go to confession, doesn't matter if you just saw them take communion at Mass, if they walk out of the church and say "I'm a Methodist" that means they aren't Catholics. Period. End of discussion.
If someone believes that "natural science has authority over all other interpretations of life, such as philosophical, religious, mythical, spiritual, or humanistic explanations, and over other fields of inquiry, such as the social sciences," one believes Scientism, whether one says he believes it or not.
If you doubt, that, tell me what it is that the folks in the article believe that isn't scientism.
Do you consider being able to profess your own religious beliefs, rather than have someone else declare them for you to be an exercise of your freedom of religion?
I don't agree with what they're saying, but I consider the tack of trying to make it a religion an abuse of theology, academically speaking.
You are, of course, free to disagree.