But his faith in Christianity? What had become of that?
What usually happens in such cases. It was not dead; but nevertheless it had fallen fast asleep for the time being. He did not disbelieve it; he would have been shocked to hear such a thing asserted of him: but he happened to be busy believing something else--geometry, conic sections, cosmogonies, psychologies, and what not. And so it befell that he had not just then time to believe in Christianity. He recollected at times its existence; but even then he neither affirmed nor denied it....
Charles Kingsley, Hypatia, Chapter XIV. This little passage strikes me as saying something very perceptive about belief as it normally plays out in the real world; although I'm not sure it quite captures it. Food for thought, in any case.
