ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a comparison of the epistemic building blocks and normative practices commonly encountered in the sciences and in various faith traditions. One way to understand differences and similarities between science and religion is to examine their respective treatments of topical areas commonly explored in epistemological studies. The chapter outlines some of the roles of curiosity, doubt, authority, reason, and experience as they have played out in religion and in science. The importance of doubt in science was set forth by two of the early founders of modern scientific methodology, both of whom were deeply influenced by Michel de Montaigne's work. Rene Descartes and Francis Bacon, in response to the bleak implications of Montaigne's skepticism, hoped to restore faith in the possibility of genuine knowledge, but both of these luminaries agreed that doubt is an important starting point in human intellectual activities.
