Faith

The author uses the theme of faith to demonstrate that faith has to do with more than just religion. Religious faith is used as a comparison to faith in science. This can be most obviously seen in the large amount of pilgrimage imagery used within the novel.

Characters like the monk, Szabo and the woman at the meeting, and the Stenmark twins make many references to pilgrimages when discussing the Convergence. The woman at the meeting makes direct reference to the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. Essentially, she compares the city of Mecca to the Convergence facility. Just as many Muslims make the long and arduous trek to their religions holy city, the woman believes many will make the journey to the Convergence, just as the heralds did. However, it must be noted that the Convergence is not a religion in the exact sense. The Convergence has...