This thread represents faith's confrontation with science rather well.

In the beginning, we have the creationists (for now, as I've been attacked for stating otherwise, I'll limit that term to the young-earth variety). Like the rest of us, they enjoy all the fruits of science and technology, but they deny the scientific method as the means of explaining and understanding the universe. They do not accept true evidence such as that gleaned from radioisotope dating and the fossil record and they deny the true conclusion that the earth is billions of years old. Instead, they adhere to the unsubstantiated and simplistic belief that God, a supernatural entity of some kind, created everything, more or less all at once and in its present form, a few thousand years ago. Not only that, they have a tendency to attack any science that seems to threaten this belief.

Then there are the moderate Christians (we haven't had input from other belief systems so I'll stick with just Christians for now). They also believe in a creator, though some of them, for some reason, don't like to be called creationists. They probably believe in a similar God to the young-earth brigade, but they may define him in various ways in argument, as some kind of spiritual presence or driving force or as an unknowable he-who-is-within. The claim is that God need not be seen as a bearded chap in the clouds who sees all and knows all, though it's a good bet that most Christians, and children signed up as Christians, do see him in something like that kind of way, whatever our more sophisticated and philosophical types say.

Both the above types have scripture as their main guide book, though the young-earthers tend to take it rather more literally. In any case, scripture is the bedrock of the teaching that goes on in schools, teaching which mainly aims to get children to believe in what their parents, teachers and priests believe in, more or less. On the whole, unless the teaching is solely about comparing world religions and the history of religious belief, it can't be called education, as there is no scope for children to ask for true evidence to which they can apply critical thinking, an essential study skill in any process calling itself education. What's more, part of their school religion experience will probably consist of attending services, saying prayers and singing hymns, either to praise this deity or his close relatives, to thank him for doing things, to ask him for things or to beseech him to save us from hell. None of the hymns or prayers ever reveal any scope for doubt as to whether the deity actually exists in the first place. Much of this will be done standing or kneeling before graven images, a bit odd as their commandments wouldn't seem to allow this.

This latter group has an ambivalent relationship with science. History has taught them that it is always unwise to deny science, even when it seems to threaten faith, as they are always shown in the end that they were wrong to do so. They do their best to espouse science, but, where they see the clashes that are inevitable, instead of denying the science they attempt to subvert it by trying to give God a role. For example, they will say that God kick-started evolution, or that he is its driving force, doing his creating along the way. Unfortunately, this approach makes utter nonsense of the science. Science is, of course, big enough and strong enough to resist this, and this is what can cause conflict.

As science is predicated on evidence and reason alone, it will always win out. This doesn't mean that religion will disappear. The pull of the supernatural, the propensity of the imagination to espouse myth and magic and the fear of the afterlife are very strong forces. Unfortunately, they are not true, and the minds of those who embrace these notions waste a lot of energy on them, to the tragic detriment of their seeking the true evidence about everything. It's worse than that. Not only is their explanation not an explanation at all, it completely blocks any possibility that the truth about everything will ever be found. No matter what the philosophers and theologians might say, there is only one path to finding truth, which is searching out real evidence and applying all the might of the human brain to interpreting it honestly.