Spirituality is not rational. All religions are based on faith of some fact that is not proven, and sometimes downright wrong. Like the Christian belief that the world was built in 7 days, or the whole Adam and Eve jiggle. Science is based on facts, not bullshit. Unless you are a proctologist.

1) Because religions often persecuted scientists in the past when new scientific theories conflicted with religious beliefs. 2) Because more often than not, atheists wish to believe that Atheism is the only logical theory, and therefore attack religion. Science has become associated with atheism (even though it is not so in all cases and shouldn't be). This is again due to the bad history between scientists and religious institutions. In my opinion, the only logically sound option is to be agnostic.

I cannot accept that spirituality is fundamentally rational. It may be right or it may be wrong, but it is not based on rational deduction, it is based on faith. From premises based on faith, you can make rational deductions. But those initial premises are not rational, so that no deductions from them can be called rational. And what has happened over time is that *some* faith based statements made in the past have been found to be in conflict with rationality based science. For example, it was assumed that the planets, which were in the heavens (God's place) *had* to travel in circles, which were the perfect shape. The logic behind this now seems strange - what is a circle perfect, and few now think of Gos as "up there" - but it was believed as a matter of faith for centuries. A lot of things which were taken as faith in the past have been shown to be opinion invested with a spurious infallibility. Inevitably, when such opinion meets science, there will be conflict. That does not men that all faith is either in conflict with science or false. But it does mean that a lot of things which people took on faith in the past have been shown to be false.

I don't believe science and spirituality are ever really pitted against each other. Now, if you mean science and religion, that's a different story. Religion is the formalized and dogmatic institution that encompasses spirituality. And through being formalized and dogmatic, religion is often seen to be at odds with science because they both look for the same things, albeit through distinctly different routes. Religion requires faith. Faith does not require proof; it only requires belief. In this way, it is not rational because it can never be proved nor disproved. This does not mean that religion is unreasonable, it's just not rational. Science, on the other hand, requires no belief or faith. It only requires facts that have been acquired through experimentation, observation or the extrapolation of such empirically derived data into hypotheses and theories. Science, therefore, is seen to be rational because it can either be proved or disproved through the scientific method, which is a rigorous and strict methodology that stresses observability, measurable evidence, repeatability and the principles of reasoning. Science and religion do not NEED to be pitted against each other. However, they sometimes are because of egotists and zealots that come from both camps looking to declare that they have found all of the answers. I think the REAL trouble comes from people trying to apply the "rules" of one to define the other. Religion and spirituality cannot be scientifically qualified or quantified; and science does not need the belief of the faithful. When left to their own devices, they can both exist quite well side by side.

It seems that especially since the nineteenth century, a growing number of secular scientists have been openly critical of the Bible and of the world’s religions. History clearly shows, as do modern events, that indeed the world’s religions are or have been in many cases, responsible for unrest between groups, wars, and even atrocities. In other cases, very powerful religious figures or institutions have been strangely silent or even complicit in such horrible events as the Holocaust. Some scientists believe that besides these things, there are trends where some religions are actually slowing or impeding the advancement of beneficial research and education, (such as in the case with cloning or stem cell research). What has resulted is almost a religion of secularism in the scientific community where a grassroots group has challenged and even repeatedly attacked the Bible and mankind’s organized religions. Although both the scientific community and organized religion both seem as you say to be fundamentally rational, the urgency of the times we are living in, and the severity of world conditions are causing a real tightening of ranks on both sides as the relationship between the “two worlds” continue to worsen.

Because excessive rationality can lead to schizophrenia.

Just Remember..... that science deals with (visable) facts as much as possible. Spirituality deals with (invisable) facts as much as possible. (Spirits) also....Science puts man on (top) Spirituality puts man (under) something.

First, spirituality is not rational. In fact, it is the exact opposite- it is based, not on reason, but on faith. That's not to say one is any more virtuous than the other. I think it would depend on the situation. Second, I think the contention between science and religion has to do with the fact that many spiritual people have historically seen God (or their variation) as a way to explain the unexplainable. Science, on the other hand, seeks to explain everything, and any god that takes refuge in mystery starts running out of places to hide. A God that exists to explain the unexplainable, when faced with the growing knowledge of how the world works, loses his purpose. A God that relies on lack of understanding, then, will always be threatened by scientific progress.

The problem with the question is the assumption that both are fundamentally rational. Science is based on logic, thus rational. Religion is based on faith, thus not rational. The problem is when Religion tries to provide irrational answers to questions best left to science.