Famed author J.K. Rowling recently admitted she has a “God-shaped vacuum inside” her that she believes will “probably” remain “unresolved” for the rest of her life.
“I’ve struggled with religious faith since my mid-teens,” Rowling posted on X Friday. “I appear to have a God-shaped vacuum inside me but I never seem quite able to make up my mind what to do about it.”
Starting Line
The discussion that led to that revelation began when, responding to the news of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Rowling wrote:
If you believe free speech is for you but not your political opponents, you’re illiberal.
If no contrary evidence could change your beliefs, you’re a fundamentalist.
If you believe the state should punish those with contrary views, you’re a totalitarian.
If you believe political opponents should be punished with violence or death, you’re a terrorist.
As if to prove her point, another user told her to “shut the [expletive] up” because “you want people dead for simply expressing their gender identity.”
Indeed, in responding to the baseless assertion, Rowling pointed out that the individual who made it is “exactly the kind of person I’m describing: fixed beliefs, zero evidence, inventing grievances to justify a desire to silence people who say things you don’t like.”
Sex Change
Challenged to name some of her own beliefs that had changed, Rowling replied with a brief list — one that she noted in a later post “would have been a novella” if she’d named every topic on which her thinking had evolved over time.
Beginning with the subject at hand, Rowling wrote:
I used to believe nurture was everything and that nature wasn’t important. My belief changed because of my own life experience and from reading studies about genetic inheritance.
In my early twenties, I believed the difference between the sexes was entirely due to socialization. I no longer believe that (for the same reasons as above.)
In other words, genes determine one’s sex and associated traits, and there is nothing one can do about it. A man can ingest female hormones, get fake body parts, and wear a dress, but he’s still a man. What’s more, he has no business being in women’s private spaces or competing against them in sports. Rowling, of course, has been fearlessly proclaiming such truths for years.
Switching Subjects
Other things Rowling “used to believe in” but “no longer do[es]”: “unilateral nuclear disarmament,” the “essentially harmless” nature of cannabis, and “assisted dying.”
She did not elaborate on her change of heart regarding nuclear disarmament.
On cannabis, she explained, “I no longer [believe it’s harmless] because I’ve witnessed it wreaking havoc on someone I care about’s mental health.”
She said she now opposes assisted suicide “largely because I’m married to a doctor who opened my eyes to the possibilities of coercion of sick or vulnerable people.” (This, she confessed later, was the only listed subject on which her mind had changed since she authored the Harry Potter books.)
Columnist Jonathon Van Maren found her remarks heartening, writing:
This public opposition to assisted suicide — just as the [U.K.] House of Lords debates MP Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide bill — is significant, especially if Rowling decides to weigh in on this issue further. As evidenced by her massive impact on the transgender debate, her personal profile and the reach of her platform can be used as a potent tool for political change. I very much hope she expands on those views.
Soul Hole
Then came Rowling’s admission that she can’t quite decide how to fill that “God-shaped vacuum” in her soul. She went on to state:
I could probably list at least twenty more things I’ve changed my mind about. I don’t currently have a single belief that couldn’t be altered by clear, concrete evidence and in all but one case, I know what that evidence would have to be. The exception is the God conundrum, because I don’t know what I’d have to see to make me come down firmly on either side. I suppose that’s the meaning of faith, believing without seeing proof, and that’s why I’ll probably go to my grave with that particular personal matter unresolved.
Observed Van Maren:
Rowling’s frank admission of a “God-shaped vacuum inside me” echoes almost precisely how New Atheist-turned-Christian Ayaan Hirsi Ali described her journey to Christianity in a conversation with non-believer Alex O’Connor earlier this year. Her husband, historian and former atheist Niall Ferguson[,] also recently became a Christian, and the couple were baptized with their children. Other atheists and agnostics, meanwhile, have described precisely the same “God conundrum” as Rowling, including British writer Douglas Murray, American social scientist Charles Murray (author of The Bell Curve), and perhaps most famously, Dr. Jordan Peterson, who spent an entire book twisting himself into torturous shapes in his struggle with God.
Not Seeing Is Believing
Rowling, obviously, is no atheist; confirmed atheists don’t cop to needing something to fill their “God-shaped” void.
She is, however, correct that to fill it properly, she will eventually have to take a step of faith. Although Jesus himself offered “many convincing proofs” of his resurrection (Acts 1:3) and countless others have defended the faith since then, ultimately one has to believe without seeing physical evidence — which is the way God, in his wisdom, intended it. As Jesus told his doubting disciple, Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29).
