My rant for the day ...
You statement is much like Einsteins and I also agree that whereas perception is overwhelming and convincing - it is not reality. The wave/particle duality is an example, as is Bells inequalities, space/time and geometry/dimensions. We are blissfully unaware (LOL!)
Particleness is an illusion to me also, a necessary construct to do science, but I see particles more like placemarkers and messengers. Perhaps they are riding the waves or are like the crest of the wave as you suggest and therefore have substance and meaning for all intents and purposes but again, are not the whole story. Indeed, without the waves, the fundamental forces, they would not be. What we discover about quantum gravity, supersymmetry and extra dimensions ought to be quite illuminating. We live in exciting times!
I would hope that the public face of Western Science would drop its insistance upon neutrality toward the existence of a Vastly Superior Intelligence, of God, the evidence being so massive, crushing, overwhelming. It is, in my view, simply a bad institutional habit with negative cultural implications.
I agree. The oft quoted reason for materialistic epistemology is that saying God did it forecloses all further inquiry. I find that argument disingenuous since further inquiry is foreclosed even more broadly and sooner by writing anomalies off to the anthropic principle. Moreover, believers are expected to inquire. Notably, the Jewish Kabbalists believe we will be held responsible for not inquiring.