interrelations between science and religion

The intrinsic value that science adds to human’s lives can not be objectively measured but no one can doubt that science has made life as a human much easier over the course of our history as a species. What is science one might ask, and though science is basic and all humans practice it, the answer to that question is both simple and complex. Einstein defines science in his famous essay “Science and Religion” as “the century-old endeavor to bring together by means of systematic thought the perceptible phenomena of this world into as thorough-going an association as possible. To put it boldly, it is the attempt at the posterior reconstruction of existence by the process of conceptualization” (Einstein 47). Einstein, as per usual, sums up the phenomenon succinctly although one can find fault with his mention of science being a “century old endeavour” (Einstein), because all humans engage in science sometime in their life. This usually occurs as small children and is often times called playing but many times a child is testing the world, seeing how things work. This process of testing one’s ideas about the world is as intrinsic to human development and human civilization that there is only one other segment of human life that is as fundamental to us, religion.
Religion in the broadest sense possible is one of the most fundamental ideas a human will carry with them throughout their life. One’s beliefs or non-beliefs regarding religion will fundamentally shape their life and how they interact with others. The Author Pico Iyer writes in his article “Maximum India”
“Philosophy is ceaseless along the Ganges, and usually causeless. Holy men sat on the ground under umbrellas, chanting and smearing paste and ash on their foreheads. "These ...

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... to deduct from that what should be the goal of our human aspirations” (Einstein 45). Facts are never the sole decider in a question of what should be, because the very essence of the idea of “what should be?” lies at the heart of the unknown, we cannot know how things will be when we change them to how we think they should be, but through belief in what one can call a better world the human race as a species keeps trying to make the world into what we think it should be, and its the fundamental concept of religion that guides this endeavor. Meanwhile science is pushing our species along with a slightly different intent, to add knowledge and understanding to specific questions or areas of life. While this is important to us as a species, it is only with the religiosity that Einstein describes that one can ascertain whether the knowledge is beneficial or detrimental.