[quote]whereas religion answers why things happen (eg: the reason behind event X is purpose Y)[/quote]

im going to refer you to the cake argument [quote]giving your reason for baking a cake when asked for the recipe or giving the recipe when asked why you baked the cake[/quote]

Why does something come back down when we throw it up? Was Newton just plagiarising God?

answering why to that question is difficult for me to put into words but i can easily explain how it comes back down (gravity and so forth) so far my best way for answering why is because it was thrown in the air; anything other than that and i'd have to get metaphysical, philosophical, or religious, which is why i don't think science and religion are mutually exclusive.

Because bodies of mass are attracted toward one another. There you go, have you abandoned your premise yet?

thats still how when you ask why, you ask intent, and truth be told im not sure why the ball was thrown in the air nor am i confident i know why it comes back down. beit the will of a god or no reason at all. what i do know and can easily describe and explain is how it gets in the air and how it comes back down. now let me ask you something; why are we here?

No, I wasn't asking intent, I was asking why something in the air falls down to the ground. Not why somebody put it in the air, not why we're talking about balls in the air, why it falls once it's up there. Intent isn't a magical thing that stops 'why' questions dead, it's a phenomenon that occurs just like gravity - and, by the way, intent can often be explained by science (social sciences and psychology, for example). The reason 'why' questions are tricky is because you can keep asking them - why, then, are bodies of mass attracted to each other? Because of this or that fundamental particle that does this or that with the other, but why does it do that? You can keep going, there's absolutely no limit, no final question, and introducing a God or some old dead guy's shitty pseudo-philosophical parables doesn't change that. If what you're trying to talk about are, specifically, questions of 'why' that regard the intent of conscious beings more universal than humans (ie. a god, however abstract or personal) as the full stop before which you can capitulate and be content that all questions on the matter are answered (and I think you are), then you're begging the question by implicitly assuming that there [i]is[/i] any intent to begin with - religion might be 'answering' those questions, but it's also the thing conjuring them up in the first place! This isn't the insightful recognition of a fundamental divide between faith and empiricism, it's an onanistic, self-serving and trivial line of bullshit. Religion doesn't answer 'why' questions, it answers 'why does God do that' ones.

you're asking me why but you're expecting me to answer how well the most im gonna give you to that is sometimes there is no why, hell maybe theres never a why. maybe things just happen for no reason at all and we're just left to try and make sense of it. as ive said before, things like gravity and physics answer how things happen. when you ask why gravity affects the ball, you're asking the wrong question because gravity does not have reasoning and you need reasons or things that have reasons to answer why. and ya' know what, the same can be said for how questions. in fact, it can be said for question because when theres a fundamental understanding or explanation of something there's always a deeper and more fundamental understanding and explanation which [b][i]both[/i][/b] religion and science struggle to find. and no i'm not trying to implicate that a god is the reason behind everything, im trying to explain that science and religion have to fundamentally different goals that people confuse for the same goal and if you can't tell the difference between how and why you have no right make scientific or religious inquiry until you do because there is a whole world of difference. so to answer your question of why the ball is falling, its because some random guy threw it in the air or it fell off a ledge how is it falling? gravity reacts with the ball pulling it towards the larger mass (earth) until it makes a complete stop due normal force equaling the force associated with gravity. and religion tried to answer why questions, their best answer was some divine force and then they asked why it does it now please tell me [u][b][i]why[/i][/b][/u] we're here on this big rock flying through space, and you better not tell me the big bang or evolution.