It seeks to understand observable natural forces, processes, and phenomenon that can be objectively studied and tested yielding reproducible results. Standards for scientific proof are so high that it often takes generations to establish a scientific fact. Religious faith functions in a different realm. Religious faith seeks to find the meaning of existence. This long search for a spiritual meaning to life is uniquely human.
Many religious traditions reflect the cultural and scientific understandings of an earlier time.
For instance, while the Bible clearly assumes a flat earth, modern Christians do not claim that the earth is flat. The essence of Judeo-Christian faith posits that the source of all true meaning for human existence is a worshipful and personal relationship to the one eternal God. This is held as true by Christians on both sides of the Creationism-Evolution debate. If Science and Religion operate in their respective realms, there should be no debate. Conflict arises when Science claims a special knowledge as to the why of existence or claims what it cannot know that there is nothing beyond a scientific description of a human being, the world, or the cosmos.