This article contends that theology is a scientific endeavor if it 1)
makes correlations between humanity’s deepest existential questions and the
answers provided by any given religious tradition and/or 2) it describes the
beliefs and practices of various religious traditions as accurately as
possible. The correlations in methodology are made by psychology, sociology,
anthropology, and/or neurobiology. The descriptions in method are also
collectively furnished by archaeology, history, psychology, sociology,
anthropology, and other cognate disciplines. The article further maintains
that metaphysics is a scientific endeavor if it explains 3) the constituent
elements of reality as a whole, as well as 4) explains the presuppositions
used to detect these elements. I take a scientific endeavor as one that
requires empirical and/or logical verification of its claims. Since my
conceptions of theology and metaphysics demand such verification, they
should be considered scientific.