Science And Religion: Two Paths To Truth

The putting together in contradistinction of science and religion has been the task of philosophers, religion, sociologists, writers, and anyone who even cares to think, for many centuries now.

- Swami Narasimhananda

So, here I would not go into the traditionally discussed aspects of this debate but rather would highlight some less or not discussed aspects. First, when one puts science and religion either on a comparable basis or pits them against one another, there is an oversimplified assumption that the words ‘science’ and ‘religion’ have singular meanings. The reality is, as everyone knows, that these two terms mean a loosely-knit group of disciplines that are a conglomeration of paths, sometimes quite opposite to one another. For instance, medicine is definitely science, but works on axioms, many of which are not accepted by quantum physics. Or, neuroscience has researched and made some findings that go against the spirit of many axioms of mathematics, which is also considered science. To make matters complicated, science is often seen by philosophers, as a discipline that maintains scientific temper or the scientific method. However, it is interesting to note that scientific temper or method is a characteristic that many disciplines other than science have shown to possess.