Philosophy

Why would you think that science and religion are opposed Discuss and evaluate Raymos attempt to deal with this question.

Suppose that there exist an island in a sea of mystery. The island is the metaphor for accumulated scientific knowledge  the fruit of mans endeavor for thousands of years. The sea of mystery is the metaphor for all that is unintelligible and unexplainable. As man builds the island  extends his domains towards the horizon  mystery reinforces its boundaries. Every time man makes a discovery, a bubble of mystery emerges. Every time man extends the boundaries of the island, the sea neither loses its dignity or infinity. Knowledge does not limit the domain of the mysterious.

Knowledge is finite as the island is finite. The same case can be said of the human mind and its immediate product - science. As Raymo argues

Science is based upon our ability to imagine what we cannot see  Science, like the imaginative landscapes of childhood, is a world of make-believe. It is, however, a very special kind of make-believe. Science takes as given that a real world exists out there, and that it can be represented, albeit imperfectly, in the world of ideas (11).

Science and religion are not opposed entities. Scientific knowledge can go as far as the human mind can comprehend. Religion represents the ideals of mystery. The progress of human knowledge continuously leads to the emergence of a mystery continuum. Religion, for the most, does not contend scientific knowledge, but claims that it can explain the unexplainable. Science cannot contest this claim because it cannot, by itself, provide an alternative. Therefore, it would be irresponsible to assume that science and religion are opposed entities because they tackle two different domains.