How are religion and science similar or different?
Religion and science are similar in that they both are “communities of understanding,” where people in groups come together in communion over ideas. Science as a system of belief is no different than religion. People act according to a set of consensualized principles that direct their actions and interactions. The difference between science and religion is that science deals with understanding things defined as “physical,” whereas religion deals with understanding things defined as non-physical or non-material. So science as an interactive human process is no different than religion—its focus or content of study, however, is different. Science is a human interactive process to understand that which is defined to be physical. Religion is a human interactive process to understand that which is defined to be non-physical. Science and religion intersect in the study of the physical nature of human understanding, or in the philosophical exercise of defining that which is physical.
