this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2025
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How do they reconcile the holes?
Why do they think their denomination is right and not all the other thousands out there (if they do)?
Do they know about your (lack of) beliefs? If so, how has that played out, or if not, will you ever mention them?
I'll start with the easiest one! They're members of an independent church which is a member of the Evangelical Alliance in the UK. My dad's background is Anglican, and my mum's is Baptist. They're both pretty okay with individual differences (as long as it's a protestant one!), so they're open to minor differences in belief - you can basically write these down to different interpretations of the scriptures. They are okay with discussing these differences.They were okay when I was a member of a Quaker congregation, but they don't really get Catholicism - they see some stuff as idolatrous but they're not anti catholic.
Their reconciliation of the 'holes'; this one is trickier. The fact that it's difficult to pin down a historical Jesus (when we know about other people factually from the same era) is just sort of glossed over. Regarding the possibility of metaphysical stuff they're actually pretty chill with admitting that there's things we don't know, in part because of things like dark matter, or the development of a knowledge of atomic particles etc - for them I think it's more a case of "we can't prove it yet" rather than "it can't be proved". They love science because for them it's a proof of the elegance of creation; they believe that evolution, for example, is perfectly in line with a creator God - for them God is the spark at the beginnig of everything. A good summary of their attitude to the holes is:
Lastly, I've never outright told them I don't believe. Partially because where I stand fluctuates daily, but mostly because my life is enough of a tell - I have lived out of wedlock with my partner for the best part of 10 years, I drink to excess, don't attend church, etc., and I have spoken to my sister (who I know will talk to my parents) about not being a Christian in any practical sense. They know I'm a good person and for them I guess it's not problematic (and they're not "fire and brimstone" types so I don't know if they're worried for my eternal soul or not but they're content seeing me happy and being true to my conscience I guess!
I never knew about virtual particles. Huh... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_particle
🫂
One of my friends thinks divine beings are aliens, perhaps time-traveling ones given their godlike powers as Scripture sometimes seems to describe when it comes to the unfathomable. I've wondered if this whole life and universe is a simulation in a supercomputer, of which God is the developer, who we'd meet at the end of our "lives." But I don't know...
I go from "God is a kid with a magnifying glass" to "everything is as it is, and when I die that's it, nothing happens afterwards", with varying shades of agnosticism in between.
I still find churches (well, big ones made by people hundreds of years ago, not meeting halls) super chill. I visited a catholic shrine on my holidays last year and I found it really peaceful. I enjoy the "practice" of that aspect of religion in that respect. But I can't square my experience of the world with anything other than an awful god who wouldn't warrant any attention anyway.