It is this link between cause and effect that drives the probing eye of modern science. Religious explanations are rarely tested against physical reality. They rarely demand empirical evidence because the basis of religion is the practice of faith, not skepticism, empiricism, and logic. Religion and science are both potentially valuable methods of seeking knowledge, yet each is very different. One is not necessarily better than the other.
Science deals with cause and effect relationships based on the laws of nature.
Pre-scientific cultures may have supernaturalism as their prevailing paradigm. And since religion, in one form or another, seems to be more intimately woven into the cultural fabric of societies, they are vital to defining social status. Most students will be very tentative about their explanation. This is good, and models science well. Students will find that by collaborating with others they may modify their hypotheses and may actually feel they have approached a more accurate explanation.