Science vs. Religion

Conventional wisdom has it that one of the current central debates is Science vs. Religion, and that, at heart, the debate is between Reason and Faith. Now, there is no doubt that there is such a debate, and that the two sides involved generally go by the labels 'Science' and 'Religion'. However, the attempt to further pigeonhole them as 'Reason' and 'Faith' only bears out how misconstrued the conflict is, for, both sides use both Reason and Faith, and so the key difference must lie elsewhere. Both sides employ Reason in its function as offering causal explanations: in 'Science', the causes of what occurs are expressed by the laws of Physics, Chemistry, Biology, etc., while in 'Religion', the most prevalent general cause is the activity of God, though human causes, such as a prayer and ritual are often also recognized. Likewise, both sides take at least the same something on Faith, namely that their explanations of what has already transpired, whether it be a law or God, continue to be applicable to future events, for which there can plainly be absolutely no evidence available, and, so, must be taken on Faith. Likewise for unwitnessible occurrences such as accounts of the beginning of the Universe. So, both 'Science' and 'Religion' express mixtures of Reason and Faith. Given that homogeneity, one key difference gets highlighted. Religion has more heavily emphasized Faith, not as its essence, but due to the historical circumstances that its Rational legs got kicked out from under it by the Copernican astronomical theories. For, the Ptolemaic cosmos, as Aristotle shows, can accommodate the location of God in contiguity with the Earth, namely, in the sky above. This contiguity is crucial, because it provides the grounds for interaction between God and humans to take place, without which is an abyss the bridging of which is difficult to explain. In other words, Copernicus eliminated God from his astronomical throne, thereby seriously weakening the explanatory power of Religion, leaving it to a much greater reliance on Faith. So, the real difference between Science and Religion lies in the greater, not the absolute, Rationality of the former. Though, the fact that centuries later, people still point to the sky when referring to God, may show that Religion still has reason enough to keep the Faith.