"Science and Mormonism have nearly always been on very friendly terms"

[Physics Guy]

I might have some interest in the more abstract question of the science-friendliness of Mormon doctrine, but I think it's hard in practice to separate that issue cleanly from the issue of how Mormons deal with science. Religious doctrines aren't usually framed to address scientific issues clearly; one has to interpret them. A sensible way to do that is to consider how a religion's doctrines have in practice been understood by the religion's adherents. Popular piety can sometimes go against the official teaching, but if we ignore popular interpretation completely, we can end up admiring an imaginary religion while calling the Pope no true Catholic.

The only way I can really see for a religion to be friendly with science is for it to be platform-agnostic, in the sense of saying worthwhile things about what things in life mean, without teaching or assuming anything about how the world works. Then it can have a relationship with science that is something like the relationship of thermodynamics to mechanics, or of psychology to physics.

A classical thermodynamicist can tell you how to measure entropy, and make testable predictions about how this entropy thing will and will not change over time, but if you ask them what entropy even means, in terms of particles and forces and stuff on that level, the thermodynamicist will just say, "You tell me." A religion might be similar, I think, just with concepts like grace or karma instead of entropy.