How does one compare science and religion?

Answer 1

There is no overlap between the physical sciences and religion.

• Science looks at the Universe to understand the way that things work in simple mathematical relationships devoid of any supernatural control. A scientific solution, a medical cure for instance, works all the time whether you know why or believe in it or not.
  
• Religion wants to have a high toned reason for why things work (to further a purpose, it's god's will, etc). It then looks at the world an d cherry picks data to conform with that going in position. Again citing a medical example, prayer or a miracle only cures a disease if you are worthy or truly believe it will work - failure is on your part for being weak.
  
• Pseudo science clothes the religious arguments in science sounding babble to make it seem aboveboard.
  

Answer 2

Science is based on facts but religion is more than likely just made up stories. Religion was invented to give people something to believe in, it makes them feel better about life thinking that there is a god and life after death and all that jazz. Although bibles, etc (Evolutionary Religions) have not been disproved they are more than likely false tales or exaggerated tales. The Urantia Book being a revelation does not fall into this category. It is an Epochal Revelation of Truth and will/can stand up to honest criticism. Religion is a personal experience and one has to determine the meanings and values of a spiritual nature by the fruits one bears that is consistent with Cosmic Truth, Universe Meanings and Divine Goodness. The same yard stick cannot not be used to measure, compare science with religion but a Revelation such as The Urantia Book and coordinate these two with a great deal of satisfaction for the reader.

Science however is based on facts and theories which are then supported by facts. Science helps us understand the world and how all organisms live. Science is knowledge.

AnswerScience looks for the "How", while religion and philosophy try to answer the "why" questions about our life... They are complementary and not contradictory sectors of human thinking. Refer to "Religional Science" link at the end of the page for more details.

Moreover, science has God as its final goal (to understand how Universe works), while Religion has God as its initial starting point.

Science is used to acquire knowledge about how the world works (with continuously changing theories that we will never know how close they are to reality, since no one can know what the 'real' reality actually is), while Religion is required to help us act here and now (with the help of its strong beliefs for the moral way of doing things).

Answer"Religion has something to do with the service and worship of God or the supernatural, whereas science has to do with physical phenomena. Religion has to do with faith and the unseen, science focuses on empirical evidence and testable knowledge. Science is a set of methods designed to describe and interpret observed or inferred phenomena, pas or present, and aimed at building a testable body of knowledge open to rejection or confirmation. Religion-whatever it is- is certainly neither testable nor open to rejection or confirmation. In their methodologies, science and religion are 180 degrees out of phase with each other." AnswerScience and religion differs from each other by concept, methodology, and goal. However, science and religion should not contradict but should be complementing each other. In this regards, holy books as Quran (the holy book for Muslims) contained many scientific statements that were only possible to be interpreted with the current state of art of science and information. AnswerThe Coordination of Science and Religion (COSAR) with the Truth of Reality is exquisitely embedded throughout The Urantia Book. The Urantia Papers emphasize that religion and science are not two antagonistic views of reality; they are views of two aspects of reality, those aspects being the personal and impersonal natures of God. The bumper sticker you may have seen lately "In the Beginning, God Created Evolution" demonstrates the increasing consciousness of our Cosmic Citizenship and a healthy respect for science (COSAR expressed on a bumper sticker). The COSAR Principle as described in Up Close and Personal with The Urantia Book - Expanded Edition addresses this with a great degree of satisfaction. AnswerScience is a self correcting discipline based upon hypothesis, theory, and testing theories through repeatable experiments. If repeated experiments consistantly reproduce the same results every time, then the theory being tested is accepted as fact.

Religion is based on pure conviction and faith. Religions can produce evidences of the truth of what they teach, but evidence does not equate to proof or truth. Evidence is an indicator that something '''might''' be true, whereas proofs are actual facts that substantiate a claim, hypothesis, or theory.

Science is a system of collecting facts, information, substances, and theories and developing and peforming experiments to either prove or deny a theory / theories. All of the experiments are supposed to allow for one proven theory, which makes it a finding or a factual idea.

Religion was early man's attempt to describe and explain science and nature. Human beings are born with an innate urge to know why about everything. Some things just are the way they are. Early man made up stories that explained why some things happened and now some people don't want to admit that there is mythology in everything that was written back when men believed the earth was flat and thought the planets, sun, moon, and the rest of the universe revolved around the earth. All religions contain mythology. You, if you choose to belong to a religion, must decide which brand of mythology that you wish to subscribe to. Unfortunately, in the heart of most wars for centuries, massive losses of life have been because of a religious order defending one set of myths over another. And they all insist that they are the only true and right kind.

So, one is a fact finding mission based on actual facts and proven information in order to arrive at a conclusion, and the other is collection of beliefs, rituals, rules, and philosophies based on the translated interpretation of orally transmitted teachings of story tellers from ancient times before men could read or write. After centuries of these stories being passed down from one to another verbally, man developed the language and learned to read and write and started writing these stories down. The ancient Greeks had written archives of all of these stories but when the Crusades covered Europe, the Greek archives were looted and destroyed by the "one god" people. Eventually the stories were all changed but some of the archives of Greek "mythology" were in people's homes and were therefore saved from the clutches of the history revisionists. The rest were translated and revised by different members of royalty to suit themselves later on. They were then published, revised repeatedly and give you what are considered the "religious books" of today.

Answer 3

== == Science looks for the 'HOW' thinks work, while Religion looks to answer 'WHY' things work in that way. They are supplementary sectors of human thinking. In any case, they are both tools used by humans to search for the truth. One cannot argue that one is correct and the other false - they just use different ways in searching for the ultimate truth (if such a thing even exists...). Science uses laboratory measurements (to measure 'hard' evidence) while religion uses life's emotions (to measure 'soft' evidence like love, altruism and their meaning to us and the world). BOTH are part of humankind's quest to understand the Universe. The primary way that science and religion are alike is that some who believe in science become every bit as adament about the truth of science as a religious person is about their personal religious beliefs. Many times, if a person has accepted science as truth to that degree, they forget that man is controlling science and mistakes can be made. Just as mistakes could be make in interpretations of religious holy books, human error and biases can result in wrong conclusions and reports, or even faked conclusions and reports, in science. Still, some of those who have accepted science to the degree described above often accept one view as their gospel, much like a Christian accepts The Bible, and other religions accept their holy doctrines Forgetting that science is to begin with an unbiased hypothesis to be proven or disproven through UNBIASED scientific methods and means, they accept conclusions without checking out the means used to reach those conclusions or alternative reports that may disprove the reports they have chosen to accept. Both the religious person and the one who believes in science can be so closed-minded that they miss the truth and believe lies. In both, an open mind is the key which unlocks the door to the truth.

Answer 4

The previous answer was completely incorrect in stating that science requires any kind of 'faith' - although that's a common fallacy; it absolutely does not. The reason (most) atheists/agnostics/humanists/freethinkers still support scientific knowledge, but not religion, is because it requires that observable evidence be the basis of any claim... and respects no claim made on faith. It doesn't require 'belief' in anything, because it makes no assertions that you can't observe for yourself, or at least evaluate the reliability of the source based on how well they tend to observe evidence. There is a difference between rationally evaluating the reliability of a source, and accepting an assumption for irrational reasons. On top of that, if there isn't enough valid evidence to come to a solid conclusion, scientists are honest enough to report "I don't know for sure, but here's my best guess with the information we do have". Religions are not required to have observable evidence for their beliefs, and tend to make claims of certainty when there is absolutely no evidence at all. In fact, "faith" in the context of knowledge claims, requires a lack of evidence too great to make a rational decision instead. That is why almost all religions conflict in one way or another, why they often conflict with what we observe scientifically, and why they also tend to be very slow to respond to new observable evidence if it conflicts with their current belief.

So in short, science requires evidence (aka observable and rationally analysed) to 'explain the explainable', and is self-correcting when new evidence because of the skeptical nature of the scientific method. Religion requires a lack of observable evidence (aka Faith) in order to 'explain the unexplained', and is resistant to correction because of the arbitrary nature of faith-based knowledge.

Answer 5

A:Science and religion are similar in that they both seek to answer questions about how the world as we know it came to be. Science relies on evidence and demands proof, while religion relies on ancient texts and demands faith.

Answer 6

Some (like myself) believe science and religon are one in the same, and that god is not really a being(man in the clouds that grants wishes), but more like a force that governs everything in the universe, and protects the balance in the universe.

Answer 7

Science is based on known facts which are built on.

We have ways of proving the truth of science.

Religion is based on ancient scripts and man's inability to explain the unusal.

We have no way of proving the truth of religion.

I know which one I believe in.

Answer 8

god and science are similar because what god said earlier is now proven.