“Faith” is a fine invention
For Gentlemen who see!
But Microscopes are prudent
In an Emergency!
–Emily Dickinson
The difference between religion and science, as far as I can see, is summarized above. God might be so cruel to deny salvation to those who don’t believe, but science operates whether you believe it or not. Medicine will (or won’t) work even you don’t believe in it; same with gravity. And if God will save the faithless, then is there need for faith?
science is falsifiable
It seems to me they also differ in the fundamental question they try to answer. Science seeks to answer how we are here while religion seeks to answer why we are here. “Why” can never be answered rationally and so it requires faith. The answer to “How” requires the faithless scientific process.
Religion also delves deeply into the “How” part. It just typically gets it totally wrong. Check out Genesis, or any of the other crazy creation myths out there.
For that matter, I also propose that Science also gives much more satisfying answers to “Why?” as well. Many of the Whys pertaining to why society works the way it does are answered in a satisfying way by evolutionary psychology, for example. “God did it” is never a satisfying answer for very long, even when you’re asking “Why”.