My own view on this topic: I personally always eliminate people who are religious in the sense they believe in a god that's because I'm an Atheist/Atheistic Buddhist myself and I already know there's bound to be a conflict if I would ever start a relationship with someone who does belief in a god being. From my own atheistic point of view I don't want my offspring learning things that's going against my own priciples and ideas on this subject. Research about mixed cultural marriages (+ partners with different religions, mainly non-believers/christians with muslims) in my country already proved there's a very high risk the marriage will end up in a divorce, sooner or later. I don't want to lie to myself that I will ever belief love is stronger than anything else, overcoming differences in social and political views. It will save a lot of pain and energy to find a partner with the same ideas about life. But if other people want to try it, I won't stop them.
And you know what happens when I am depressed?! .......... I get.......... EVIL!!!! Argh! I am feeling the calling right now. Here I was, trying to talk about being a religious person, but.. but.. now I have failed!! *Hehe okay, enough fooling around now, don't want you to get gastric because of me. Have a nice meal!
@Taxloss: I see. So what would you do if you do meet someone who has the same view as you do, and lets say this person becomes your bf/gf (not sure that gender you are, sorry..-blush) and he/she turns into a christian, would you break up with him/her because of that? lmao BR you are too much.. You owe me an orange creamsicle just for that..-lol I knew you weren't being serious, but *shrugs* lol Im hungry, see ya!
Well, erm...good question... But I'm pretty sure I'll have chosen someone out whom I'm sure will not turn into any religion when we do have a relationship. But if it does happen...ok...it depends....how long the relationship is and how religious that person wants to be and with that I mean, would this change the future plans we had made together? If yes that would be enough reason for me to break up.
Allow me to add my 2 cents' on this, Tax. I don't think I can shelter my kids from any of those religious knowledge, especially if you are living in a western country. Sooner or later, they are bound to learn about it from their friends, are you going to forbid them from mixing with Christians or other religious friends? IMO, it's better to let my kids have a proper learning on these subjects rather than to let them wander on their own because they might easily get influenced by others. For example, I have noticed a good friend of mine was bornt into a Buddhist family, but she converted to Christian... I doubt because of her true belief in God, but because those friday meetings and church gatherings were fun to her. In a way, she gets to meet people (guys especially) and I myself, have been to these friday meetings organized by the Christian fellowship back in my school days, and believe me, they ARE fun. You play the piano, and you sing, and you have a lot of fun together, but religion wise, what do you learn? Nothing. They did not even talk of the Bible. But my friend, she converted because she was enticed by the fun they offered. So I would prefer to teach my kids of all those religions and would encourage them to do their own soul-searching (sounds corny I know, but it makes sense) and would supply them with all the reading materials, and let them decide on their own. Because as I have said, I believe I should not force someone against his/her own Path in life, if my kids decide to be Christians or even Muslims, I would not stop them, as long as they truly know that religion and have faith in it (and not join because the religion has fun gathering(s) or because of the infamous threat of eternal damnation). There's always no harm in seeking more knowledge, and the more you learn about a religion, the more you would know. Often, it's not the religion itself that is ugly, but the people that made the religion ugly. So I am not against any religion, provided they preach goodness and not evil stuff. I'll of course try to make my kids as open-minded as possible. There's no ONE and ONLY true religion. My kids can have a choice of their own, I'll just be there to guide them.
^Ah, please don't get me wrong, I won't forbid them to learn about religion as kids and esp. teenagers are likely to do the opposite of what the parents tell them, but I will 'manipulate'* my kids from the start by teaching them how to be and stay critical about all sorts of things, challenge them to think for themselves. But I wouldn't worry that much about my future kids if they're like me: my parents never told me anything about religion things, till I saw some docs about this religion/universe on tv when I was like 4/5 years old and asked them where man came from and my mum answered along the lines of: "I'm not sure, maybe we descent from Adam and Eve?" Then she told me the story about Adam and Eve and the Snake and the Apple, Heaven and Hell. I clearly remember I didn't accept this answer from her as I just couldn't believe it and I thought it was just a story to keep me satisfied and bugged my mum further on this and she had to gave up. And I repeat again that my parents never told me anything about this before I was asking that question and I've never heard them talking about it. (they are non-religious so it's not an issue at home) It may sound like bragging but even as a small child the adults could never trick me with their made up and often silly stories, trying to shut me up if I was bugging them with ''Why, Why, Why, Why" questions like most kids will do. I don't say the Bible stories are silly stories, don't get me wrong, but I mean things like: "there's a case with gold at the end of the rainbow", "Sinterklaas is real and if you don't behave his Pieten will take you away" (Dutch Santa and his black helpers which were slaves in fact) etc. and while most other kids believe these things I've never believed it. I somehow always sensed there was something not right if the adults were telling me stories to either scare me or to keep me 'dumb' because they don't feel like to tell the truth to a kiddo. * everyone manipulate it's own offspring, conscious or not. The way you teach them and what you teach them adds to this.
Hehe true. And I hope I am able to manipulate my kids in a good way. I hope they'll be as open-minded as I am, and not believe that there's one true religion out there.
My dad is even more atheist than me, so I guess I agree with his thinking since I was young. The odd/funny thing is that the more I study about christianity, the more I don't believe in it. My parents never even bothered to trick me with santa claus stuff. They just ask me what I want for christmas and buy it for me.
Once they realize they couldn't trick me to believe in Santa they also told me ( and I must have been 4 years old as that was the age I went to school and before that my parents didn't celebrate Xmas etc. with me as I was too young for it) they are actually the real 'Santa's and always took me to the toy stores to let me pick my own presents. -cool And as real chinese parents they always say that they didn't want us to think that some old man with a beard in a red robe (the Dutch Santa) is giving free toys to us but it was the parents who had worked hard to earn the money so they can buy the presents.
^At least you guys get Xmas presents from your parents, I didn't get any The closest I got is from those men dressed in Santa Claus suits in shopping malls.
Whoa .. there were some heated arguments here. Glad I didn't participate until it kind of cooled down! Anywho, personally, I never thought about there being problems in any of my relationships because of religious differences, but after reading all these posts, I do realize that there are many possibilites, I mean, I DO want my spouse to be a Christian. But I think that if they weren't, I would most probably be fine with it. I realize that when we have children, they'll be taught one way or another. I DO want my children to be Christians, but I don't want to force it on them. And it would be difficult if my spouse and I wanted to teach our children different beliefs. But I digress. I think that if we just have different beliefs and we respect that, it wouldn't keep us from being together, But if he tried to force his beliefs on me, then I definitely wouldn't stay with him.
well, there are alot of religious ... well maybe i shld say religious fanatics that do not share the same view as you. it's either their way or no way. there's always a heated argument when it comes to religious topics. everyone is really passionate about their beliefs or lack of beliefs. we should all agree to disagree. and Suga, it's all your fault!
