ABSTRACT
Epistemology is that branch of philosophy concerned with investigating the natures of knowledge and belief and their relations to each other and to such concepts as evidence, faith, rationality, and sensory experience. Both religion and science attempt to bring order, understanding, and even control to the cosmos that human beings inhabit. In recent generations, the understanding that religion provides has been increasingly stigmatized as inferior to that of science. Where the two clash, religious understanding has usually suffered, for religious beliefs are frequently taken to be merely matters of faith, whereas science is said to yield knowledge.
