God or the Proton?

I know its been a while since I posted, but I plead the excuse of exams and fever.

Lately I've been caught up in a discussion on the merits of science versus religion, as in which one is superior. To be frank, I don't think either is. Both are necessities in anyones life, and I really don't think that believeing on one prevents you from following the other.

Science and religion are actually intertwined. Religion explains the world through the heart, science through the mind. Ultimately, both seek to explain the world. And if you think about it, science arose in a sense because of religion. When man started questioning 'why?' religion began. When man started asking 'how?', science began, and inevitably, the why comes before the how.

I've always wondered why people are obsessed with 'why' something came to pass. It has already happened, so do the motives really matter? Consider a war. Knowledge of why it happens means very little to the widows and orphans. But knowing 'how' their dhusbands or fathers died is another matter. I feel the ultimately, 'how' is far more important than 'why', simply because 'why' is open to interpretation, while 'how' is not. The explanation of why someone did something is entirely dependant on the explainers mindset, beliefs and world views, while how is entirely objective, atleast in my opinion. There is only one possible explanation for how something happened, and that is inevitably factual.

Manss preoccupation with motive is absurd really. 500 years after something, knowing why it happened doesn't really matter much, because the world's changed, the people have changed, everythings changed. But from 'how' it happened, man can still learn.

I think I'll get back to the religion/science debate another time. Got class you see. But I leave you with this Menon original-"Man needs science to get thorough the day, but he needs religion to sleep aat night'.. Cool eh?