“Historically, the most dangerous men on earth were men of God…especially when their gods became threatened.”

Dan Brown sets the tension in Origin in the Prologue, wherein futurist and atheist Edmond Kirsch confronts the Parliament of World Religions with a discovery that he believes discredits religion. Brown describes an unbridgeable gap between the worlds of science and religion, where neither party is willing to bend to the other and thus create their identities in opposition to their opponent. The character of Kirsch exists as a foil to the religious right. His identity is one of opposition, rather than independence from opposition, and as such he is enslaved to his opponent.

“Well, the meek were supposed to inherit the earth, but instead it has gone to the young—the technically inclined, those who stare into video screens rather than into their own souls.”

Bishop Valdespino meets with Edmond Kirsch to hear his presentation, lamenting not only the divide between the secular and religious worlds but the divide between generations, and between the Luddites and the tech savvy. At every possible juncture, humanity divides and forms in opposition to the other, according to Origin. Bishop Valdespino emerges as an early antagonist for Kirsch, one with the full power of the Catholic Church and the Spanish Crown. Like Kirsch, however, Valdespino is incapable of existing without viewing himself as the opposite of his