A student had asked Dr. Radhakrishnan “Sir, since you are also a great philosopher, can you explain the difference between science and religion, as there seems to be a contradiction between the two? Religion speaks of something that is not seen and people have faith in that.
But in science one accepts only what one sees, so it appears that scientists are anti-religion and faithless.” Dr. Radhakrishnan gave a very nice answer.
He said, “A little science takes you away from religion but more of it brings you nearer religion.” It is true that those who have little knowledge of science speak of religion and God in derogatory terms. Einstein would not agree with this negative view, as is evident from his writings.
Thus the materialist has faith in and bases his life upon, the assumed validity and reality of seen things, whereas spiritual persons think that whatever is seen is fine, but there exists a Truth that is not seen by the senses. There are many things that exist even though you cannot see them. Sense perception is not the only valid means of knowing what is real.
Through the senses we can only observe objects of the world, but there are things that lie beyond sense perception and different means exist for knowing them. Such belief is called spiritualism.