Science versus religion

Are scientific and religious ways of knowing compatible or forever at loggerheads? Can the cognitive claims of both religion and science be held simultaneously, or are they mutually exclusive? And what criteria ought we to use to form a judgment? These are the central questions posed by the author who strips away the long-held idea that science and religion can be safely relegated to their own separate spheres -- science to the empirical, religion to the spiritual -- by illustrating the many ways in which religion encroaches upon the domain of science by claiming to have unassailable, revealed knowledge about the universe and human nature. The clashes between these powerful worldviews have steadily increased in number and intensity as more and more people have turned to science for answers to life's mysteries. But are science's ways of knowing to be preferred to those of the world's religions? The author shows that the professed aims of science -- logical compatibility and clarity of explanation based upon observable data and experience -- are the more congenial to human thought and reasoning, unlike religion with its reliance on tradition, mystery, parable and revelation -- none of which can be emprically demonstrated.