An Open Letter to a Friend

What sort of relationship can be built on such unstable foundations ? Where the (apparently) static, authoritarian and immovable deepest religious faith of one so starkly contradicts the dynamic, organic, living, ancient and creative Universe of the other; how can friendship flourish and relationship grow in what must ultimately remain such barren grounds of contested belief ?

I feel that science does not give all the answers - that it merely provides closer and closer approximations to some truth, ever and always as distant as some infinite asymptosis - never quite attaining it's object but always and creatively aspiring in it's general direction. Your faith supplies you with a truth, to you it is The Truth, an immutable final statement of fact and unshakeable object into which you have invested all of your faith. There are no questions for you, only final answers and these are all supplied by your holy book into which your faith is 100% invested. We are working in different directions, perhaps with the same (or a similar) goal but one of us aspires towards some partial truth and the other works backwards from their final Truth.

I am well-versed in science, in philosophy, in history and more. You are well-versed in your Truth. I fear that your faith is not so strong as you claim as when you attempt to shut me down, censor me, stomp on my difference and open interpretation - why else should you be so defensive when facing an alternative view ? Even if my difference were shown by your Truth in the Final Analysis to be incorrect, if you would at least allow me my difference then at least my small truths would supply fertiliser for this soil and into which your Grand Truth could flourish all the Grander for it's final accomplishment and triumph.

So, what now ? Can we really just brush this Difference under the carpet and wish it were not there, deny it every time it arises ? I fear that my opinions and rational perspective will always be crushed even if I allow you the room to express your faith-based assertions (even though they literally leave me speechless and unable to respond for fear of upsetting you). Will Amor Vincit Omnia ? Will we resolve this difference creatively and in a healthy manner or will it remain, deep below the surface like some cyst ready to poison the living organism of this relationship at the slightest disturbance ?