George H. Smith - Conflict Between Science And Religion

[T]he conflict between atheism and theism is primarily an epistemological one: it is a conflict between naturalism and supernaturalism, between the knowable and the unknowable. According to atheism, all of existence falls (in principle) within the scope of man’s knowledge. According to theism, however, some aspects of existence are forever closed to man’s knowledge. This fundamental conflict sets the stage for the inherent antagonism between science and theology. It is common for modern theologians to argue that there is no conflict between science and religion, that these are concerned with different spheres of human existence. Yet there is a deepseated friction between these two disciplines with regard to their basic assumptions. Science represents man’s attempt to systematize given aspects of reality into a coherent framework of knowledge. Since science is dedicated to understanding reality, it rests on the premise that reality can be understood. Theology, on the other hand, is dedicated to the proposition that an important segment of reality (in fact, its ultimate form) is forever unknowable. There are cross-purposes at work here. Science seeks to make reality coherent; theology seeks to convince us that some aspects of reality are incoherent. To the extent that science succeeds, theology dies of strangulation.