There’s a saying that science fiction is never about the future, it’s always about the present. It simply projects present day concerns into the future. So when religion is high in people’s consciousness many religious stories are written. Likewise, when Wells wrote Science and Progress were practically worshiped as secular religions, so his fiction reflected this.
I had heard something like that in my SciFi and Politics class. My teacher made the statement that it was our fears of the future put into words (My professor also made the assertion that SciFi was progressive...), but that it reflects the present would fit it (though in our class we have a running joke that Asians seen as the other in all SciFi... wonder what that would mean.) Hmmm.... I’d need to mull that over.