Trinity

Sunday before last was Trinity Sunday. Naturally, the preacher's sermon was about the trinity. He went a little off the reservation and started telling the congregation about how leptons exist only in community but are actually different particles. This was supposed to be his metaphor for the trinity, and because there are so few physicists in the congregation it wasn't helpful at all. I got it, of course, but I don't think the others did.

The trinity is one of those things that I decided long ago to stop thinking about. Frankly, I don't see how being a little heretical or ultrorthodox about the trinity would make much difference to how a person lived as a Christian. John Calvin had Michael Servetus burned at the stake over the issue, so it evidently mattered a lot to him. Also, I just don't understand the various conceptions of the trinity and what they signify, so thinking about it makes my brain hurt.

Are there three gods in community or is there one god with three main aspects? Does it matter?

If Jesus pre-existed the universe or was begotten, having never existed before he was born, would those two conceptions translate into different practices for disciples of Jesus holding the divergent views? Why would it?

I believe in God the father, God the son, and the Holy Ghost. I don't understand how they are supposed to relate to each other, but I don't reckon that I need to. If somebody has some fixed ideas about this, I'm fine with that, although I would remind him that he hasn't really got anything to go on and might as well agree to disagree with his coreligionists who differ or who, like me, are indifferent. Don't bother inviting me to the auto da fe; I won't come.