Parallels

I have discovered parallels between science and religion. For an Atheist, a skeptic of religion, an ardent disbeliever in all things god, that is an achievement.



And I have an ardent Christian to thank for this insight. One who fervently worries about my soul and my spiritual life, or lack of it, has demonstrated a parallel between his way of “thinking” and the actual, rational world about us. One who continues to delight me with his religious thought tchotchke.



First, let us examine the meaning of the word parallel. Parallel means lying in the same plane but never meeting no matter how far extended.



Parallel is the perfect word to describe science and religion. The two trains of thought run parallel through our existence, yet they never meet. I see it as my driving on a highway, an infinite highway, while religionists walk parallel to my road on an unpaved, un-improved dirt path. Workable for them it is, yet so far inferior it is to the pavement that runs parallel to their archaic path.



We see each other and we wave, and converse, and invite each other to travel the road we have chosen. Friendly we remain, yet incredulous we each feel that the other does not see our road as the better way. Each of us sees the other as on a path to oblivion. In the case of believers, mine is a path to spiritual oblivion and all that entails. In the case of rational thinkers, the religionists’ path is one to intellectual oblivion and all that entails.



One must have faith, my acquaintance tells me. I do have faith, I answer. Faith in myself is vital; without it I am nothing. What about faith in god, he asks. There is no god, I reply. We continue on our separate but parallel paths; he has faith that his path is the right one; I have knowledge that mine is.