Thomas Hardy was born into a religious family and brought up with very Christian values and morals. As he matured and was exposed to the new ideas of the time, he became conflicted in his views about God and religion.  He was criticized for writings that many of his peers considered to be obscene, immoral and blasphemous. Throughout his adult life, Hardy considered himself to be an agnostic. His poems show that he was much more complicated than that. His writings show a Christian who was tormented by the fact that he was no longer able to believe in the church doctrine. He had a conflicted soul that was searching for some meaning.  This is evident in his poetry, especially Hap and Channel Firing. In these two poems, Hardy reacts to a world with a god that...