A friend of mine...

[Meatball]

My girlfriend was religious whan I met her but not much so. For that matter, I wasn't a strong atheist at the time either.

Now she's joined a Seventh Day Adventist church and is actually teaching the Sabbath School occasionally. She's even indicated she doesn't believe in evolution and talked about creationism. I've watched a creationism DVD (Ken Ham, ugh) she brought home one day, and proceeded to tear the arguments apart and told her that the guy is a complete scumbag. This bothers me deeply, though.

It's ruined our relationship, I can never spend my life with this person, even though I love her. I haven't told her that yet though, but it's coming.

[Darwinian]

That's a great shame.

I'll try to get my friend to join up here and perhaps you can see if you can find some common ground.

[CoxRox]

Darwinian, how's it going with your friend?

[Darwinian]

He hasn't been around for a while but I think things are pretty much the same..

[leo-rcc]

Has anyone been in this situation:

You're in a group of people just chatting or whatever it is you do with a group of people. Then the subject turns to something completely pointless like alternative therapy or something supernatural, have you ever then went all out and slayed all of it?

The mother of one of my teammates believes in Tarot cards. She knows I think it is a load of hogwash so we tend to steer away from that subject.

So I was talking about my visit to Auschwitz 2 years ago and the impression ot left on me. Suddenly she asks me "what would you say if I told you that I was a re-incarnation of a Jewish man that was gassed in Auschwitz?"

I told her that I don't doubt that you believe it, but there is no evidence to suggest that I should believe it. It went on to a pretty serious discussion and I just had to stop at a certain point.

Later in the car my teammate told me that she comes up with that kind of nonsense quite often and he just lets it slide. There's not much he can do about it.

[CoxRox]

It's interesting. The fact she comes from a born again background means she would know that spiritism, or mediumship, is condemned in the Bible (contacting demons and all that). It must be hard to be with someone who is invovled in what you perceive to be rubbish or a waste of time. Although I am a 'believer' my partner is an atheist. We don't have any problems because I'm not actively involved in any religious activity and we don't discuss it that often. If I was 'active' in a church then I can see it could cause problems......

[downbeatplumb]

Who could Darwinian be talking about???

By the way the wifes fine.

[DD_8630]

Has anyone been in this situation:

You're in a group of people just chatting or whatever it is you do with a group of people. Then the subject turns to something completely pointless like alternative therapy or something supernatural, have you ever then went all out and slayed all of it?

If someone brings up their religion, I won't give a 100-page essay dissecting it, though I might quiz them on it.
But if someone starts espousing the virtues of homoeopathy or reiki, I'll blind them with science

Thankfully, none of my friends are Creationists...

[bozo]

I have a friend who visits every week who is a very strong, gnostic atheist.

The problem he has is that his wife, whilst a lovely girl, is making big waves in her local spiritualist church. She is now becoming a bit of a creationist and tries to persuade him to her way of thinking.

She has always been this way and used to be a born again Christian but now seems to be moving into mediumship and apparently is now one of those that James Randi loves to hate, she contacts the dear departed.

Now, he has a family, three boys, and of course loves her very much but is starting to get worried that she is getting in a bit too deep, so much so that this seems to be all we talk about when he visits as he can't talk about it at home.

If he was your friend what advice could you offer him?

dump her.

[WWLD]

(in response to original post)
In my opinion it is a BAD idea for an atheist and a theist to be in any serious relationship, but MARRIED?
I think that's a horrible idea.
Most theists are VERY passionate about their beliefs, and I am definitely passionate about my atheism along with most other atheists. For two people who have such passionate contradicting views from one another, I think it won't work out.

Those poor kids. I hope they do find a way to make it work. Divorce is hard on the couple, but so difficult for the kids to watch their parents separate