You take disparate cases. In the first case, being late to a meeting, you undertook to be present at a particular time, or very near it, and others relied upon your representation. Thus, if you are very late, you have let them down, discommoding them when they might have done something else with their time. Thus, you ought to apologize and/or explain how it was an accident, since, in essence, you broke your word.
In the second case, it may very well be that your internal state of belief is your own business, or that the penalties associated with agnosticism are too severe to invite them by publicity, or that you feel that most parties have too remote a connection to you to have to answer at their whim. On the other hand, I do think that if it is on the table, you owe an explanation to those closest to you, who will be the most troubled by the matter, and the most affected if there are social repercussions, such as your wife. I already distinguished between genuinely interested parties and busy bodies. |
