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Is your significant other an atheist/agnostic?

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blueblitzkrieg Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-26-05 04:16 PM
Original message
Poll question: Is your significant other an atheist/agnostic?
If your single, vote according to your last relationship! Does it matter to you if your SO believes in a god or not? If you're with a believer in god, does it cause stress or problems in your relationship?

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trotsky Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-26-05 05:00 PM
Response to Original message
1. My wife was raised Southern Baptist
She had already begun discarding a lot of religion by the time I met her, but I kind of gave her that final "push" into atheism.

We have two kids, and I just cannot begin to imagine the friction that would be created if one of us wanted to indoctrinate them and the other didn't. My hat is off to couples who can make that work, but my suspicion is that it's very rare.
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rexcat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-27-05 08:42 PM
Response to Reply #1
10. Mrs. Rexcat is a recovering Catholic...
Edited on Thu Jan-27-05 08:43 PM by rexcat
She has recently broken away from the church because of the pedophile problems. She is not attending any church services and has not for some time but she misses the rituals for which I am completely baffled. I have recommended UU services but she is hesitant.

on edit: we have been married 23+ years.
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lazarus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-26-05 05:57 PM
Response to Original message
2. sympathetic pagan, actually
which is almost atheist. :silly:
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GOPFighter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-26-05 09:45 PM
Response to Original message
3. My wife is Catholic
Her faith means a lot to her. She only believes the parts that make sense to her and discards the rest. We rarely discuss religion, and the few times we've discussed God, she was completely defenseless.

I feel that if I wanted to I could eventually destroy her faith in the Catholic religion and eventually cause her to doubt the existence of God, but I would destroy her in the process. Her faith in God is what sustains her, right down to the core. I love her too much to hurt her that deeply. Her religion isn't hurting me or anyone else that I can see.

My wife is a liberal, despises conservatives, and has nothing but contempt for the Fundies, so we get along okay.
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YankeyMCC Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-27-05 10:34 AM
Response to Reply #3
6. I'm in much the same boat...

And in fact much of my family is like this. I think if I really pressed them I could point out the inconsistancies in their world view and point out that they are at the same point I was years ago and that it would be easy for them to "go" atheist if they take hard honest look at themselves.

She is liberal and is clear that the bible is just myths but she believes in a God - although I don't think she can clearly articulate a description of that god, not an old man in the sky anyway.
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fshrink Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-26-05 11:14 PM
Response to Original message
4. Other.
- 1st wife was waiting to become a full-blown "bourgeoise" to claim her "faith", pulling my poor kids in the process.
- 2nd wife is atheist, although I suspect she might lean on whatever belief is minority at the time (she's a cultural anthropologist...)
- There's no 3rd wife.
- The kids I work with do whatever it takes to piss off the people they have to live with.
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Cobalt Violet Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-27-05 12:00 AM
Response to Original message
5. I would have to say I don't know.
Because my SO is an atheist one day and Souther Baptist the next. One day he tells people he's atheist and another he's bragging about being SB (as if that's somehow will impress a New Englander).

I don't suppose I'll ever really know.
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goddess40 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-27-05 10:41 AM
Response to Original message
7. My SO is on the fence, a little afraid to let the superstition go
I think he is more of an agnostic but keeps his little toe on the line "just in case".
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Modem Butterfly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-27-05 05:25 PM
Response to Original message
8. My SO is an even stronger atheist than I
He's practically an evangelist. I'm more of a soft atheist- without any evidence, belief is useless. He is absolutely certain that there is nothing supernatural about our world.
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Taxloss Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-27-05 07:56 PM
Response to Original message
9. We are both extremely atheist.
From very different backgrounds.
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Biased Liberal Media Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-27-05 11:18 PM
Response to Original message
11. My SO is Atheist, always has been. I was raised Xian
converted to Agnosticism around my freshman year of college, and after that first year I met him.
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dolo amber Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-28-05 08:40 AM
Response to Original message
12. My SO and I both dislike the word 'agnostic'
for ourselves...it seems to be kinda wishy-washy for what we believe...which is as it's utterly impossible to know one way or the other, who cares? I'm certainly not gonna live my life any differently if there is or isn't. I pretty much live by the *actual* Christian teachings of Jesus...I don't hurt anyone (intentionally), I treat others with respect, I'm generous to a fault, and so is he. That's not a by-product of any indoctrination I received (although he was raised and educated a Catholic), it's just common human decency. :)

But yes, if pushed, we both claim to be athiests. I prefer the term anti-theist as I think the world would be altogether better off without any organized religion, gods, etc...but that's just me. ;)
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trotsky Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 12:50 PM
Response to Reply #12
15. There is a term for you, it's just not "official"...
Apatheists. You really don't care. :)
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dolo amber Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 08:39 PM
Response to Reply #15
17. I *LOVE* it!!
Thanks, trotsky! :D :hi:
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Dookus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-30-05 03:37 AM
Response to Original message
13. yup
we're both atheists. In fact, I don't know if I've ever been seriously involved with a theist. All my exes were atheists, as far as I know. One was a very liberal non-practicing Jew. I don't think he believed in god, but we never really discussed it.
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Modem Butterfly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-30-05 09:16 AM
Response to Reply #13
14. I was once involved with a theist
That sucked big time. Also, my partner was married to a fundie right out of college (he's about eight years older than I). She was so upset by his lack of faith that she had to cheat on him with a Deacon from her church. I met him after his divorce.
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curse10 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-31-05 07:48 PM
Response to Original message
16. I won't date religious people- so my partner is an atheist
more hardcore than I am- but he grew up that way.
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gollygee Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-01-05 07:47 AM
Response to Original message
18. I don't know what I'd call my husband
Edited on Tue Feb-01-05 07:47 AM by gollygee
He says he's agnostic, but he says that he thinks our "moral compass" and our ability to think rationally and to have emotion are divinely inspired. He says he doesn't beliwve in a personified god like in christianity, but he obviously believes in the supernatural to some level.
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Mr. McD Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-01-05 11:44 AM
Response to Original message
19. My wife believes in a god but not the Christian god.
It's more of a New Age thing, universal mind, intelligent universe, along those lines.:shrug:
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