Is science compatible with religion?

True science is neutral on the positions of religion. Famed biologist Stephen Jay Gould called them "nonoverlapping magisteria".

IMO, no, they are fundamentally incompatible.

By comparison: Science seeks evidence through systematic inquiry and study to build a base of knowlege that is constantly evolving and refining; 

While religions are generally founded upon "revealed" word, legends, prophesy and miracles, are not associated with evidence, and can neither further evolve nor refine.

Religion is a theory, just like any other scientific claim.  It should not be dismissed, although, we do not yet have the knowledge to prove it right one way or another, like the theory of parallel universes.

Personally, I don't believe in regarding religion as a science, because, at this stage in our development as a species, I think it hinders any progress that we might make.  However, we might one day come to a knowledge so great that we can take it as a science without any side effects.  So, I think that until we can prove the existence of religion through, we should treat it like any other theory that we cannot prove with our current knowledge.

There are scientists that maintain their religious beliefs so that would suggest yes.

Science will tell you this,( quote taken from BBC bitesize) :-

Scientists believe the Universe began in a hot ‘big bang’ about 13,600 million years ago. The Universe continues to expand today. The evidence for the Big Bang theory includes the existence of a microwave background radiation, and red-shift. Stars do not remain the same, but change as they age.

The Big Bang theory

Scientists have gathered a lot of evidence and information about the Universe. They have used their observations to develop a theory called the Big Bang. The theory states that about 13.7 billion years ago all the matter in the Universe was concentrated into a single incredibly tiny point. This began to enlarge rapidly in a hot explosion, and it is still expanding today.

Evidence for the Big Bang includes:

• all the galaxies are moving away from us
• the further away a galaxy is, the faster it is moving away.

These two features are found in explosions - the fastest moving objects end up furthest away from the explosion.

Scientists have also detected a cosmic microwave background radiation or CMBR. This is received from all parts of the Universe and is thought to be the heat left over from the original explosion.

Where as religious belief will tell you this:-

The Salt Doll

A salt doll journeyed for thousands of miles and stopped on the edge of the sea.

It was fascinated by this moving liquid mass, so unlike anything it had seen before.

"What are you?" said the salt doll to the sea.

"Come in and see," said the sea with a smile.

So the doll waded in. The further it went the more it dissolved till there was only a pinch of it left. Before the last bit dissolved the doll exclaimed in wonder, "Now I know what I am!"

Label Makers

Buddha once pointed to a flower and asked each of this disciples to say something about it.

One pronounced a lecture. Another poem. Yet another a parable. Each outdid the other in depth and erudition.

Mahakashyap smiled and held his tongue. Only he had seen the flower.

Why would it be incompatible?    That which humans label 'science' is merely the discovery and description of processes already in place, created God God, set in place and in motion by God.    Secularists/athiests only mistake is in refusing to see and acknowlege Gods role.    That and trying to use their imaginations to make up things to add to reality that arent reality except in the unproven theories theyve invented.    Theories that never

I think The Z has the best answer.

The question is like asking: "Are apples compatible with rocks"

Science is a process - not a belief system.

Religion is a belief system.