Science is the physical explanation of our natural world while religion is a supernatural revelation of our natural world.
This I believe will be difficult for the atheist to believe because he does not believe in the existence of God and might also be difficult for those who are opposed to christianity to believe. But as a Christian scientist, I believe and can proof reasonably that both are different means to one end.

From the creation account, after God created man, being just, he didn't leave him ignorant of his natural world and how to interact with it. However, when man disobeyed God, theologians believe he, God, destroyed the garden of Eden, but I rather think that is a figurative speech. "What is so special about this garden that man will miss?" I will always ask. I think what the scriptures meant by destroying the garden must be "the destruction or withdrawal of the knowledge of how man can interact with his immediate environment. And when he said that he will toil and till the ground before he can eat, I believe he, God, meant man will suffer before he will regain mastery of the Earth. And don't just start blaming God and seeing him as wicked because every system that wants to maitain balance must have checks and consequences for going against the rules. Bitcointalk forum has, your country has, mine has too. Check the crime rate in countries that have decided to relax theirs and compare it with those of the countries that have decided to enforce theirs religiously, may be you will understand why God did what he did. That was the premise on which religion and science were born. HOW?
Remember science is defined as a body of knowledge or a systematic enquiry into nature. When Man's knowledge was withdrawn, he started doing things by trial and error. Things that worked were celebrated. The process leading to such result was preserved and handed over to the next generation. Gradually, man's knowledge of the principles guiding his environment grew to what we know today as science. BUT WHAT HAS THAT GOT TO DO WITH religion?
Remember man's mastery of his natural environment was a very slow one. There are archeological proofs of ancient communities that once existed but somehow went into extinction for reasons no one can clearly asertain till date but with high belief that most cases were due to adverse conditions. That means man must have gone through monstrous ordeals to come this far. However, God in his infinite mercies could not sit and watch his creation suffer. But he could not reverse his judgement because he is just so he had to release information about how to survive through some difficult situations to some persons who will share the idea with his community. When this idea works the community in appreciation will set up a system of appreciating the source of such revelational knowledge and that was how religious worship emanated. So the people will continue with the practice for their survival until someone could explain it physically then when it's physical explanation has been gotten people will start working on it to see how they could apply the process to other situations. Therefore, through religion, man knew that some heights were scalable. And by explaining revelational knowledge later on using physical parameters gotten through observation, he knew he could solve more problems by studying events that happen around him. Thus, religion inspired scientific advancement.
Now, because man has seen so much development via scientific advancement, he then thinks religion is bluff. There are several things happening in our present day, that men predicted accurately several years back without scientific aid. Today, meteorologist forecast weather conditions and the world is celebrating. In my traditional religion, there are so many feats these men achieve at a lower cost than using scientific methods. Examples include finding missing items, controlling weather condition etc.
I am not relegating any of the above mentioned issues to the background but I am only saying that while both are means to same end, religion inspired scientific advancements. And religion is still ahead of science in helping man understand and subdue his challenges. Don't get it twisted because of bigots that have made a mess of religion.