Religion is the means we use to think about and act on the things in life that we can absolutely not know. Because there are things about existence and life we cannot know, it does not mean those things are unimportant or don't matter. In fact, the realms of life about which we cannot have knowledge in the sense of hard facts - the things we cannot know - are some of the most important parts of our lives.

Religious language and practices are the means we use to try to make sense and to make decisions in these realms where we cannot have knowledge. Some of the ways we talk about these things are through stories, poems, memories from the past, speculations about the future, myths, laws, reasoning and logic, hymns, rites, rituals, silence.

Not knowing is uncomfortable. We like to know things. The more certainty we have, the better we feel. The great temptation for all religion, including Christianity, is to try to claim certainty when all we can really have is faith. 

Faith is how we live with the ambiguities of life. There are questions we cannot answer absolutely, but life still compels us to think about them and talk about them and act on them.

To find absolute answers, you will need to give yourself up to an idol. That idol may be the church, the Bible, religious experience or something else. But in Christianity we can find truth, justice, beauty, and a peace that passes all understanding.