Abstract

The idea of alternative realties is fundamental to science, especially contemporary physics that suggests that reality is far different than the time-space world as we know it. Alternative realities are also the stuff of religion from ancient times to the present, countering our ordinary common-sense understanding of the world around us. Whether such views of alternative reality are threatening or ennobling depends in large part on the critical judgment that is brought to bear on them. As the current spate of covid misinformation shows us, pseudo-science can be as misleading as devious religion. Yet there is a promise of the possibility of a symbiotic relationship between progressive religion and critical science, rather than a competitive one, that in the future will continue to ennoble both.