A critical review of John Cottingham's view on the distinction between the realm of science and religion in issues and the method of inference

One of the components of John Cottingham's thinking - a contemporary English philosopher - in the relationship between reason and religion, is the distinction between the field of science and religion. He has presented this distinction in two parts: the type of issues in the field of science and religion, and The method of inference in the field of science and religion. According to Cottingham, religious issues are related to outside the field of human knowledge, and the way of debunking them is not the way of debunking the best explanation in empirical sciences; Because despite the problem of evil, theistic hypothesis cannot be considered as the best explanation for the phenomena of the world. His proposed model for the field of religion is the legal model; That is, the fact that the explanation presented is not incompatible with empirical evidence is enough to justify religious belief. He considers his point of view between extreme faithism and pseudo-scientific inferentialism. This view is criticized in several ways; Including: 1. Failure to pay attention to the function of secondary philosophical concepts in understanding the metaphysical dimension of the world of matter and abstractions, 2. The problem of "ignoring", 3. The inefficiency of the proposed model with regard to the issue of evil.