1) Both involve an inversion of our normal ranking of importance. Nerds are the lowest and the weakness. What the world calls ridiculous and childish nerds consider central and important. Some silly little story is worth giving your whole self over to, if only for a moment. Nerds are the picked on in school, the hated, and the isolated. But step into their world- the conventions, the comic book stores, and the world is turned upside down. The lowest are made kings of the earth, and the weakest are indomitable.
2) Both exalt childlikeness. Related to #1, both nerddom and Christianity see something vital and true in childhood. Truly both teach that the Kingdom of God belongs to little children. Telling a nerd to grow up is futile. And Christianity embraces the childlike weakness of the Christian spirit.
3) Both are all about community. A Christian alone is incomplete. We discover who we are in and through community. We are a community bound by our shared acknowledged weakness and sinfulness, and our love of Christ. We are bound together by a singular focus. Nerds get together, too. And our focus is also singular. But we are also bound by the silent acknowledgement that we really don't fit in. Our shared weakness and obsessions are our bond.
4) Both express a fundamental dissatisfaction with life as it exists before us. Christians are not truly at home in the world. The are travelers and sojourners on the way home. Life without God is grey and dead. Only Christ brings life. Nerds embrace escapism. They do not treat this world as their home.
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