ABSTRACT
The key difference between the provisional nature of scientific discovery and the certainties of revealed truths leads some to a sharp divide between ‘science' and ‘religion', while others adopt them in parallel or as complementary ways of engaging with the world. Still, scientific discoveries underlie technology and the fabric of the contemporary society in ways that foster a scientific worldview. The ‘science and religion' arena remains significant for many world contexts especially when involving a clash of worldviews or when conspiracy theories pervade social and other media and contradict scientific understanding, as over the Covid-19 pandemic period. Scientific studies transform many popular misconceptions, not least ideas of fish, where research has revealed significant levels of ‘awareness and cognitive skills', including their ‘sentience – the capacity to feel, to suffer pain, to experience joy', issues that furnish ‘the bedrock of ethics'.
