SCIENCE, RELIGION and SOCIETY

The word Science is from the Latin Scientia meaning Knowledge while the word Religion, from the Latin word Religio meaning Reverence. Thus the etiology of each word is quite different conveying two distinct concepts: for Science an understanding through the accumulation of Knowledge; for Religion the elicitation of an emotion for deep respect, fear or veneration.

With Religion, concepts as to ones self, others, and ones environment are supplied by Religious Precepts or Beliefs, in the case of Science, there is a progressive discovery of one self, others, and ones environment.

"Learn, wretches, learn the motions of the mind;
Why you were made, for what you were design'd;
And the great moral end of human kind". (Poor Richard's Almanac, 1749)

The nature of Religion is authoritative, and at bottom, selfish and intolerant: one must believe in the Principles of the Religion and have faith as their foundation in forming the bases of truth and understanding of our self, others and our world. The individual is to be guided through the perils of the world by those appointed as interpreters of the Religious Precepts or a “historic” source considered as “Sacred” in containing notions of divinely inspired truth.
An understanding of one self, others, and our world through the progressive accumulation of information is unsettling. There are unresolved conflicts and contradictions. But these are, in fact, the direct consequence of the application of Religious Precepts as the foundation of Human Society. Religion has placed us at war with our very nature and with those that these Religious Precepts perceive as different.
"The Pentateuch (First five books of the Old Testament) has thus been in the world the first code of religious terrorism. Judaism has given the example of an immutable dogma armed with the sward. If, instead of pursuing the Jews with a blind hatred, Christianity had abolished the regime which killed its founder, how much more consistent would it have been---how much better would it have deserved of the human race!" (Ernest Renan, The Life of Jesus, 1863)

The three “Great Religions” are at war amongst themselves. Their battle field: The Middle East. In our highly technological age, this “battle field” will spread world wide with inevitable and progressive destruction.