ABSTRACT
In the field of social anthropology, there has been a long-standing interest in the relationship between ‘science’ and ‘religion’, an interest going back to the very beginnings of the discipline. However, in recent decades, this interest has dramatically waned. This chapter differs from ones taken by social anthropologists, and summarizes the most important anthropological discussions of 'religion and science' to date. In other words, both Adventism and siansa are perceived to offer the possibility of understanding the world rationally, in contrast to the kind of blind faith the Adventists consider to be dominant in mainstream Christianity, and from which they distance themselves so emphatically. While people who are keen on the paranormal may be unhappy with the perceived lack of existential meaning in a world dominated by science, the Christian 'fundamentalists' described are deeply unhappy with the 'unscientific' world of Catholicism and mainstream Protestantism.
