There is superficial conflict but deep concord between science and theistic religion, but superficial concord and deep conflict between science and naturalism
Interpretation
Science and theistic religion may appear to conflict on the surface, but fundamentally align, whereas science and naturalism superficially agree yet deeply clash.
Alvin Plantinga's quote emphasizes the nuanced relationship between science and different belief systems. He suggests that while there may be apparent disagreements between science and theistic religion, at a deeper level, they can coexist harmoniously in their pursuit of understanding. In contrast, the relationship between science and naturalism may seem aligned at the surface, but profound philosophical conflicts arise when considering their fundamental views of reality and existence.
In practice
In a debate about the compatibility of faith and science.
Suppose we concede that if I had been born of Muslim parents in Morocco rather than Christian parents in Michigan, my beliefs would be quite different. [But] the same goes for the pluralist...If the pluralist had been born in [Morocco] he probably wouldn't be a pluralist. Does it follow that...his pluralist beliefs are produced in him by an unreliable belief-producing process?
The strongest wish of a vast number of earnest men and women to-day is for a basis of religious belief which shall rest, not upon tradition or external authority or historical evidence, but upon the ascertainable facts of human experience. The craving for immediacy, which we have seen to be characteristic of all mysticism, now takes the form of a desire to establish the validity of the God-consciousness as a normal part of the healthy inner life.
British society has never been cleansed of the filth of imperialism.
If man were immortal he could be perfectly sure of seeing the day when everything in which he had trusted should betray his trust, and, in short, of coming eventually to hopeless misery. He would break down, at last, as every good fortune, as every dynasty, as every civilization does. In place of this we have death.
In the usual progress of things, the necessities of a nation in every stage of its existence will be found at least equal to its resources.
I thought: hope cannot be said to exist, nor can it be said not to exist. It is just like roads across the earth. For actually the earth had no roads to begin with, but when many men pass one way, a road is made.
Wit is the appearance, the external flash, of fantasy. Hence its divinity and the similarity to the wit of mysticism.
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