Essay Sample on Religion vs Science: Exploring the Supernatural and Natural Worlds

Science and rationality primarily assess various aspects of the natural world, while religion transcends the physical to the supernatural hence more encompassing. Whereas scientific inquiry delves into determining the meaning of everything in the natural world through research and experimentations, their achievements are limited by methodological naturalism. Methodical naturalism limits science to the study of natural phenomena and laws. However, religious discourse probes the supernatural entities which are beyond the realms of science. Conceivably, there are various questions to which science and rationalism cannot adequately provide meaning. For instance, scientists may explain why some parts of the world receive daylight before the other but cannot tell what ordered such time differences to be the way they are.

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Religion retains its relevance even in scientifically perverse wold since it gives spiritual meaning to issues while science predominantly answers empirical questions about the components of the universe. From the perspectives of balanced reasoning, religious discourse, scientific discoveries, and rationality are mutually reinforcing. While scientific discourse predicates upon analytic thinking, religious discourse provides an intuitive look at the world. This means that religious discourse retains its relevance even with the proliferation of science.

Religious discourse, science, and rationality have a mutualistic kind of relationship, which means that none can exclude the other. The two fields significantly borrow from and further explain the other. Moreover, they share certain presumptions and concepts, which means none of the two can be more prominent over the other. For instance, the idea of creation which is a Christian religious doctrine is based on the assumption that creation was done by a supernatural being (God) in a clear and orderly manner informs that there are specific natural laws which are not clearly explained therein. It is on this basis that science conducts an empirical investigation to explore specific laws of nature base on the understanding that such laws cannot be established based on sheer assumptions. Based on this analogy, it is evident that at some point, science cannot provide answers to certain natural force; hence even the best scientists would revert to religious explanations which transcend the empirically perceivable phenomena.

Religious discourse is enduring even with the influence of science since it at best attempts to provide a broader view of life in its entirety. It gives explanations, though not necessarily in a logical format, about why things are the way they are. Science can only proceed in reviving meaning to the universe to the extent of the things that can be logically and reasonably perceived. Beyond that, religion becomes much relevant. Indeed, various religious discourses go against logic and seem unreasonable while in the real sense, they at least provide meaning to issues which are beyond scientific explanations. The fact that religion emphasizes an individual's belief and not logic or analysis makes it enduring at all times.