Basic to all forms of metaphysical reduction is the claim that one or another kind of reality found in the cosmos is either all there is or is the producer-of-all-else. This paper examines the nature of religious beliefs, and then the relation between them and reduction claims. It finds that reduction claims either contain or presuppose the belief that whatever all else reduces to is divine, and are therefore examples of religious faith rather than theories.
An argument is then given to show that: 1) no such reduction claim is justifiable, and that 2) all such reduction claims are utterly devoid of explanatory power.