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The Difference Between Science And Religion
Why the difference is fundamental but frequently misunderstood
A few days ago while in the gym (still recovering from injuries sustained) I had an accidental conversation with another gym-goer. Unlike ninety percent of those who summon up the willpower to go to a gym regularly, she was clearly taking it seriously and not just (like most men) merely jerking weights around with appallingly bad and injury-creating form so as to pretend to a strength not actually possessed.
By chance we began talking and it quickly became evident that she was intelligent and inquisitive. We spontaneously moved from topic to topic, covering literary techniques such as foreshadowing and seeding, musical techniques such as subtle alterations in rhythm and key, and then we reached the topic of scientific empiricism. She’d qualified as a medical doctor a few years earlier and defined herself as “spiritual.” When I smiled gently and explained that for me such beliefs are as vapid as those of any more formal mythology, she was perplexed. How could a polyglot like me, and one seemingly pleasant and non-autodidactic, not have “spiritual” leanings?
As we talked for the next hour it became apparent that like a great many people she’d never actually understood what scientific empiricism is. For her, it was…
