Good bloody question woodsy!
a text has been declared holy by some religion or other, and its adherents accord the text authority ... Are holy texts useful when discussions include non-adherents?
Even more to the point are holy texts useful as means of scientific discovery in general?
There are people who consider certain ancient texts, such as the bible, as authoritative concerning scientific truth. For example, some believe that the bible statement of "facts" are the final arbitrator in determining rather a scientific hypothesis should even be considered, let alone valid. Since vocabulary is key to communication, I suggest we use the term "faith-facts" when referring to sacred text derived facts or evidence.
Consider the track record of "faith-facts" based scientific discovery.
Can anyone list the discoveries of the physical nature of the universe that have been derived from someone reading scripture?
In other words has anyone, even inspired readers or faithful ardent adherents, ever read the bible and exclaimed:
"Eurika! the world is round, my inspired reading proves it right here!
Or "by god if I read this correctly, the sun is the center of the universe".
Or "Wait fella's by a new translation of this key scripture I think space is warped by matter and time is dependent on the observer."
It is a very short list - unless of course you consider the concept of "zero" as a discovery and useful mathematical construct