If science and religion address separate realms of knowledge, and can possibly coexist, then we end up with
God created man in his own image (religious knowledge)
Man is an ape (scientific fact)
Therefore god is an ape!
Discuss!
I love the way you put that!
Unfortunately I personally disagree. Comparing religion and science is comparing apples and oranges. The conclusions may differ, but there are different ways of coming to those conclusions.
Actually, I would even say that religion ISN'T a method for conclusions, philosophy is. Philosophy's method differs from that of science; one uses logic and the other uses experiment. In reality, they both should never contradict or else they are not defining the same reality (and therefore there is something wrong in the method itself), and that is true. But the same conclusion can't (always) be reached by the other method, reason being they use two different premises.
If religion has a method, it is more similar to philosophy's method than science's method. The conclusions reached should never contradict, but at the same time a conclusion from religion can't (always) be reached by the method from science.
In that way, religion is an approach to describing another layer of the description of things. It's hard to pinpoint what specific layer because there would be so much disagreement by the religious community. While that layer will therefore remain undefined, most will agree that layer is termed the spiritual layer. Science is the physical layer.
As for philosophy vs religion, in my opinion, philosophy is conclusions reached on the logic layer of reality, the mind, knowledge, logos. And like I said, most would term the layer religion's conclusions are reached on are the spiritual. The reason why philosophy and religion are nearly, if not completely indistinguishable is the same reason the psyche and the soul are nearly indistinguishable. There are some that would and there are other that wouldn't think of the psyche as different from the soul. Us perceiving the physical world moreover the other two have soft touches on the other two and so it is not clear, they are both abstract and both very distant, so they appear similar and perhaps they are exactly the same.
When religion starts defining physical reality, that's when it stops making sense, because religion's method is incorrect for physical reality and is only correct for spiritual reality. In that way man's species can be ape and his being can be in God's image.