In their differentiated form, religion and science serve as functional subsystems of society, each based on their own code. They can therefore only observe—i. e. describe—one another as a specific environment. The balancing between religion and science, under the conditions of functional differentiation, is neither a task of religion nor one of science, but a matter of social coordination. (1) The functionally differentiated society is characterized by the fact that no subsystem is hierarchically superior to others and that a state of heterarchy prevails. Societal subsystems carry out their mutual observation via analogies, which are converted into information, i. e. into digital literality, by means of the respective system-specific code. From there, further information is gained by metaphorical means again. To clarify how science and religion can observe its respective environment (e. g., each other) and internally generate information from semantic energy derived from its other-referential environment, a look at the relationship between metonymy and metaphor is useful.
