Religion and dating

Post Reply New Topic

Well said. I believe the universe is infinite and constantly changing, instead of being linear and having a cosmic boss over it all. I don't think that makes me shallow in the least; I think it means there is always more to think about and to discover, without restrictions.

To everyone else, I apologize if I seemed like an ass earlier. I get kind of touchy about this due to past experiences, and while I can be friends with people who can agree to disagree with me on this subject, I just don't think having a lifelong romantic partner who thinks I deserve to be eternally punished if I don't come to their dogmatic conclusion before I die (even if I'm an ethical person) is in my best interest or in theirs.

You know, the moment I checked this thread, I realized just how bad being in a relationship with a religious person can be. A religious person isn't willing to be as realistic as one can be; he/she isn't willing to compromise every single belief he/she currently holds in favor of what's been shown to be true; he/she isn't going to be ready to connect with you intellectually in all aspects because religious dogma has more power on him/her than any rational views; he/she is going to allow religious obstacles to emerge in his/her relationship with you (obstacles that wouldn't have appeared otherwise). And so on.

It's not worth it.

I don't mind atheists. It's antitheists that bother me, along with fundamentalists of any other religious persuasion.

Anyone with a dogmatic approach to things isn't going to gel with me at all.

Yes - I think Spinoza articulated my beliefs pretty well, Henry Thoreau's Walden is like my bible.

Being out in nature is like visiting a cathedral, studying nature is like going to church.

I tried to learn who I was supposed to hate in order to go to Heaven, but I guess I'm beyond help in this regard...

So you only date Christians?

Would you date a liberal christian though?

This is closer to how I view things. But I don't disqualify someone for having a dogmatic belief. For me, it's about respect more than anything else. I don't gel with anyone who has to cram their beliefs down my throat.

Perhaps I should meet a nice Muslim woman who would accept me as her master and do whatever I told her.

I would be allowed to beat her or even kill her if she displeased me.

I could divorce her by just saying "I divorce you" three times.

And I could have up to four wives at a time! As young as 14!

Where do I sign up?

Quick, try the police station!

Yup......atheism is a religion in the sense that not collecting stamps is a hobby.

One thing I don't understand is why people (esp. girls) think
mysticism = spiritual = deep
science and rational = shallow

Let's add a few more keywords:

intuition, feeling, direct experience, right brain, traditionally female principles or qualities + mysticism = spiritual = deep

logic, abstraction, detachment, left brain, traditionally male principles or qualities + science and rational = shallow

Does that help?

Atheism is a religion as much as bald is a hair color.

Atheism isn't an absence of religion, or an absence of anything. Atheism is quite simply the belief that there is no higher power or deity responsible for the creation of the universe, just as Christianity might be defined as the worship of Christ as the earthly incarnation of the universal creator of the Hebrew religion. Atheism is often accompanied by the dogma that there is nothing beyond this life and that nothing exists besides or beyond the physically definable universe. Christianity, and its various denominations, has many different and often conflicting dogmas as well, and in fact, few Christians agree on very much of anything beyond God and Jesus. When I think of Atheism, I think of Dr. House. He believes in what he can see and perceive and measure and nothing else. For him, objective reality is all there is. In that sense, atheism is a faith in that it is a set of beliefs that define how one sees the world. It is not an organized religion, but it meets the criteria to be called simply a "religion".

An absence of religion would more accurately be applied to someone who has no beliefs about God or spirituality one way or the other. If that describes you, you should probably identify yourself as non religious or agnostic.
In other words

Atheism=There is no god
Absence of religion=I don't know and I don't care

I think that a big difference between religion and atheism is that religions always have dogma and rules attached, whereas atheism (and Zen) don't. I suppose you could get a dogmatic atheist, but mostly I think atheists just don't do god, and they leave it at that.

Nobody can objectively conclude that there is no god, because it's not possible to demonstrate the non-existence of anything. My own view is that for all practical purposes it seems reasonsably safe to assume there is no god. I'm not likely to go chasing after evidence to the contrary, and if somebody wanted to present me with such evidence, I wouldn't be enthusiastic about taking a look, because I think the balance of probabilities is that it would be a waste of time....but I could never be absolutely certain there was no god, in the same way as I could never be absolutely certain that a telemarketer wasn't doing me a favour by calling me.

So love of science and rationality is a turn off for most girls. How sad.