Darwinism is s faith based system that cannot be proven to be completely true, but which contains many truths. It also can be shown to be true by some of the results. To accept everything taught under the banner of Darwinism also requires a leap of faith as some aspects have not been proven to be true, and cannot be replicated as is required by scientific methods.
To begin with, I can't tell where you stand.
Darwinism is a theory based on a naturalistic and scientific examination of available data. It is not perfect and there are holes (as I admitted before). Science is still pursuing those holes. No one in their right mind accepts all postulates for any scientific theory carte blance.
Religion is purely an invention of the mind. As you point out, it is reverse-engineered. You create the belief system, then point out how the "real world" supports that system.
But the idea that a scientific theory and a mythology are both equivalently faith based is a bit disingenuous.
I freely admit that my beliefs are faith based. What is wrong with that?
My beliefs in electronic theory is also faith based as I have not seen how a transistor works, but I believe I can make a device with transistors work, so there is basis for my beliefs short of anybody knowing for fact how a transistor works.
It is the same in my religeous beliefs. I can see how my family has turned out because of my religeous actions just like seeing how a transistor device functions. It is because of my beliefs.
You reject that it is because of your beliefs in Darwins Theories that you can speculate how species came and went and new ones came. There is only belief that species changed from one to another. It cannot be demonstrated any more than my religious beliefs can be demonstrated by other than what I say and do.
There is no evidence other than what others have said, and what you believe. The fossil record does not show how it takes place.
If you just admit that it is because of your belief that it happens, and that belief is a leap of faith, I will accept that you believe in Darwins theory and have demonstrated that belief.
Short of that, you are being dogmatic just as the Church was when they insisted that the Sun revolves around the Earth.
There is no more imperical evidence for Darwin's theory of Origin of the Species than the belief that the Sun revolved around the Earth.