(July 4, 2011 at 10:04 pm)Catherine Wrote: My mum has generally completely ignored my lack of faith and doesn't normally comment, but today we were chatting, she was asking me about various guys I know, trying to find out if I have a thing for any of them. Then out of the blue she said, "Well, at least one good thing has come out of all this. You won't have a white wedding in a church with all the bells and whistles attached - it'll save me money." I didn't know how to respond. I mean, I've thought about it before, but you can still have a wedding when you're an Atheist, right? I'm sure some people just get married at their local city hall. Non-religious weddings do exist, no? All I replied to her was "I suppose," because, Yes, obviously, I won't be getting married in a church. But I was wondering what everyone else thought of the topic, whether anyone on here who is married and not religious can tell me what they did for their cermony [sic].
Thoughts?
My wife is an atheist, I am Wiccan. We decided when we got married that the only appropriate ceremony (for us) was a Discordian ceremony, attended only by a chipmunk. (Our ceremony can be posted here by request, if you dare.) (Colorado does not require an official to make a legal marriage, or even witnesses, just the signatures on the licence that says you are married.)
That said, a wedding is not about religion. A wedding is a declaration of a couple's commitment before the community. One can have a secular wedding just as fancy and as expensive as any religious one, if one desires. It is ignorance at best, and arrogance at worst, to think only the "religious" should have a large wedding ceremony.
And as a wedding is generally perceived to be one of the biggest moments in a person's adult life: if you desire, why shouldn't you have a large wedding? Moreover, why would your mother be "relieved" that because you are an atheist you would not want one (thereby saving her expenses, presumably).
That seems sort of mean-spirited on her part. Please pardon the shot over your mother's bow. However, I would think that any mother, seeing her child married, would (if that sort of thing interests her) want the big public blow-out, regardless of your religious faith or lack thereof.
As an atheist, I am sure you do not care for the blessing of a god or goddess from me, but please accept my own blessing for your happiness, should marriage strike your fancy.
James. "All acts of love and pleasure are My rituals."-Wiccan affirmation.
Doom, gloom, financial skullduggery, overpopulation, environmental disaster, pandemics, and Romance scams can all be found on my Sweetie's upbeat Website Cynics for a Better Tomorrow ( http://www.cynics4bettertommorrow.org ) A blog for the insufficiently depressed . Now: Pessimism, not magical thinking, is what will save us.
"Be ye not lost amongst Precept of Order." - Book of Uterus, 1:5, "Principia Discordia, or How I Found Goddess and What I Did to Her When I Found Her."
