If you could, please quote my 'jab'. I'd like to see how I came off as "Captain High Horse."

Please, please, please don't take every homily from every priest as what the Church officially teaches -- some 'Catholics' support abortion. Don't blanket-stereotype the entire Catholic Church from what you've seen in some churches. It's regrettable that you've had bad experiences, but that doesn't mean it's offical teaching.

Example..just because Rodney King was a victim of police brutality doesn't mean all cops brutalize people..etc.

=)

haha.

It says nothing about love, it's about relationships. Don't turn this into a flame war. This isn't just directed at you, but at everyone.

This thread is a wonderful example of why that warning is in the bible... just think arguments like this could be happening between you and your partner/wife... it would put some serrious stress on your relationship.

Doesn't bother me any...

Just don't go and try to jesus/buddha/whatever up the relationship.

Seperation of church and my pants.

This isn't in response to anyone specifically.

If someone judges my character and personality on the fact that I am an atheist, then I want nothing to do with a person of such low caliber. Judging someone "unfit" to date on the sole basis of what religion they affiliate with is just shallow discrimination and advocates such archaic beliefs as purity of the race(which would now be based upon religion) and only shows that the person discriminating doesn't have the capacity to compromise or just not care about the various and relatively insignificant nuances and "flaws" of the potential partner. An exception to this would be the muslim and christian avoiding the relationship not because they refuse to date a member of a different church, but because their families would go absolutely nuts if they did. In that case I blame the families.

I personally don't think anyone actually judges on religion... except maybe the mormons. But that's irrelevant, I think religion really comes into play after you marry a person and you spend everyday with them... when you are dating religion doesn't even have to be mentioned. But it could be a conflict when faced with differing religious beliefs every single day.

Using religion as an excuse not to marry is the easy way out. The person in question just doesn't want to deal or have to work through the complications it might bring, thus sacrificing any strong love he could have with someone of a different religion.

MechWarrior: I've heard horror stories of mormon outside of Utah, but most of the mormons I've met in-state are actually very accepting and embracing of other religions. Even the chruch preachers he acceptance of all. Our mormon and catholic population gets along very well.

Guess I've been hearing alot of horror stories too... some saying being black means you are from hell because the fires of hell have burned your skin (yes I have heard that from a real creepy mormon I used to go to school with).

See? Not everybody hates everybody.



Religion is incredibly significant to many, many people. How could it be an insignificant nuance?

Then again, if you were to marry a Catholic, whose religious beliefs stated that the children of the marriage should be educated in the Catholic faith -- and you didn't have a problem with it, I don't see why it wouldn't work.

A lot of the closeness of a marriage can come from mutual faith, though..then again, I hold marriage to a higher standard than many people in modern society do =)

Just to clarify against any insults I might pick up from this -- I'm not pointing fingers at anyone..just trying to help/clear things up a little.

While it was not intended as insulting, I can see how it could be seen as insulting to some people. However, I will not sugar coat what I believe for anyone.

There's a Utahn joke about that kind of stuff. Bascially when a Utahn sees a black, they think it is a horribly burnt man. This joke comes from the fact that there is an extremely small black population here.

I dunno, I'd marry anyone as long as they gave our kid a choice to see what they feel like believing. I'm an atheist, and while I wouldn't mind marrying anyone of a different religion, if they are gonna try and indoctrinate the children and give them no freedom of choice, that is unacceptable.

On a side note...

My parents are both atheists, but they sent me to a catholic private school with prayer and all that jazz. Never had much effect on me though...

Yeah, I went to a catholic primary school just because it was the best school in the area. I remember being about 8 and sitting in assembly, listening to the head teacher read some bible story or other. I looked around, and for the first time it hit me that everyone around me actually believed what he was saying. I'd always just thought of them as stories...


Awesome.

ROB 4 PREZ

Wow, well I'm impressed at all the responses this thread has caused, and the justifications within it, from all diff. viewpoints.

I guess dating isn't so bad, casual or whatever, but how I see it, is dating could possibly (not always) lead to love(granted farrrrr into it, but obviously it could happen). Lets say it does get serious, I'm sure in a healthy relationship people are willing to look past small differences and work through that. Only thing is that in the Catholic Church to get married to someone of a diff. faith or lack there of you have to agree to raise your child in the catholic faith, which could cause a prob. among the two.

Then again that's jumping veryyyy far ahead but yeah. Then again anything is possible if you really want to work things out, but I see how it could cause conflict as far as beliefs the same as diff. political viewpoints could cause stress in a relationship. Not saying it's something that couldnt be worked out, but yes it prob. would cause stress, being honest.

Hm just all interesting things, and things that need a lot of thought put into them. I would never not date someone because of religious beliefs, because frankly you cant help who you care about, feelings are feelings. I guess in the end it would depend on the effort of both parties to make things work out, and respect each others views

Laura

You're very confused. Show me in the Bible where it says anything about not wearing a rubber. I'll bet my feet you can't. Your love thy neighbor example is pretty ignorant also. Loving thy neighbor doesn't mean screw them. You ARE supposed to love people who are gay, but you shouldn't accept their sexual preferences (according to the Christian doctrine, don't flame me). Same goes for people that aren't Christians. The idea behind that is that you love the person, but not their sins. That goes for Christians and non-Christians alike, no holier-than-thou crap.

It's not the Bible telling people not to wear condoms, it's the Church.

But what does the church always use to back up it's decisions?

I've dated all three, as well as wiccans and satanists. Guess what? All of them were great people.

I don't remember the exact quote or where I heard it, but it's something like:
An atheist finds a burnt out lightbulb, changes it, and moves on with his life. A Catholic sits in the dark and wonders "What did I do wrong?"

Highlight. Right click. Copy. Alt-tab. Paste. Enjoyment.

How come I've never heard this joke and I live in Utah? :p

I wouldn't date anyone who's not Christian. Judging by the posts in this thread, it seems like the majority of you think we pretend to believe in God rather than actually believe in Him. It's a big part of my life, and if a big part of my life doesn't match up with a big part of a girl's life, a relationship cannot successfully exist.

If someone is willing to push aside their faith for a relationship, there are only a few conclusions to reach. Most likely, that person's faith is weak because they compensate and compromise what they supposedly believe. When you alter your belief system, it's no longer genuine.
[edit: I mean no offense by this, but I do not retract it.]

Now, to attempt to clear up the usual misconceptions:
Where did you ever conceive such an absurd idea? Do a little research on when contraceptives were developed. I don't think there were condoms in biblical days.
Yes they have. I'm sure God didn't quite see that coming, now did He? :p
Assuming you mean the Catholic Church, their doctrines are based on their belief that they continue to receive revelation from God, which in turn is based on an unproven assumption that the Catholic Church was the original church founded by Christ through the apostle Peter. As you can see, it's very wishy-washy.
Gold.

"Y'all" and "you all" are not proper terms. Period. "You" is either singular or plural. I shall again proclaim my hate for the English language by pointing out how other languages have singular and plural forms for the word. I used to be exactly the same way. Oh please. Everyone looks for particular qualities in a partner. This is no different.

~

I'm always surprised at how many people think Christianity is a bunch of rules and regulations. The binding of the Old Testament died at the foot of the cross. It shows what would've been. It gives examples of worship. Song of Solomon shows how love and sex are interconnected. Any actual rules (unless otherwise mentioned in the NT) are dead.
I don't mean to preach, but that's the whole point of the New Testament. Well... and love.

I was rather under the impression that the two books of Corinthians were intended to be a warning about how things can go wrong and to enforce the idea of what love is and it's importance in a relationship. This leads me to believe that those two quotes are rather in the context of "this is what went wrong in Corinth" rather than "this is what went wrong in Corinth so it will go wrong if you try to do the same". I think that if the bond between two people is strong enough and they are both tolerant, then a relationship between two people of differing religions can work.

Detty speaks truth. And moreover, as i recall [given that we had a long discussion about this topic on a retreat i went on, where we could not find any solid things saying don't date/marry non-Christians right out at least] those first two quotations are from passages talking qutie clearly about things like false teachers, spreaders of misinformation or bad doctrine and so forth.

Then the third one is more or less irellevant to your argument given that it was about the ancient Hebrews, long before there were Christians /or/ non-Christians. It was part of the whole them being a chosen people and a people apart and so forth, which are further symbolized in the don't inetrweave two fabrics sorts of regulations people seem to think make great arguments about how irellevant the Bible is.

Never mind.

I heart you.

I'd just like to add to Zecks comment... I don't think me being Wiccan has anything to do with our relationship really....and it shouldn't....the only thing that ever causes problems is our difference in morality...the fact that he has very strong morals....and my moral standing is laying down........but I'd just like to say that I think a lot of you are WAY to serious about this....let everyone live like they desire....no one deserves to have any religion shoved down their throat....

While I don't rule out anyone simply because of a difference in religion, I question how well it could work out if the beliefs are too much in conflict with one another.

I agree with Wolfy. As long as the values are similar, it should work itself out.

Much of the Bible are letters to churches about problems they had. They were intended to give guidance to that church and were included in the Bible to give ALL others guidance as well. These letters are just as meaningfull today as they were when they were written.

No one here is shoving religion anywhere. We're doing VERY well so far Please, keep lack of flames going!

/me shoves religion into his boxers.

[Kool-aid] Oooooh yeaaaaaah [/Kool-aid]

I don't think you have a clear understanding of the Catholic Church.

You're saying the 2000 years of history in the Catholic Church is an 'unproven assumption'? The Popes can be traced back to the Apostle Peter. It's much less wishy-washy than the thousands (yes, thousands) of protestant denominations that have sprang up in the last few hundred years. The Bible itself says to 'hold fast to the traditions from your forefathers', and that "the pillar and foundation of Truth is the Church." What other Church was around at the time? I can't name much else..

This is regarding the Pope's infallability. As far as revelations from God go, many people have seen (or believe to have seen..whatever you wish to believe) apparitions of Mary, Christ, etc, and many also have been healed without any medical explanation (link). Still, belief divine revelation is not mandatory! You can be a perfectly good Catholic and not believe in praying the Rosary, or that any apparitions ever happened.

No other organization has been around as long as the Catholic Church..if there has, please let me know.

One final question..where did the Protestant Bible come from?

GRAMMAR-MAN SAYS:

Actually, "you" is already the plural. The plural accusative, to be precise. "ye" being the plural nominative, and "thou" and "thee" the singular nominative and accusative, respectively. Unfortunately, people, in their infinite idiocy, ditched all of the forms except for "you", so now we have to use it in all four cases. However, this does not legitimise "you all" or "y'all", two abominations of words eclipsed only by the nameless terror that is "youse".

Additionally, "y'all" and "you all" are effectively the same word. It's like quibbling over whether "it is" or "it's" is correct in a given situation.

THIS HAS BEEN A GRAMMAR MAN PRODUCTION. GRAMMAR MAN BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE LETTER "Þ"

I have all the Grammar Man comics. Personally autographed too. Well, except for the issue where he battles Vowel Gone Evil, but that was during the mid-90's vaguely homo-erotic phase with Captain Comma.

I can do without it.

Are you sure you have the early stuff, before the "Split Infinity Crisis" start-over? Because some of that stuff was really cool. Dr. Phonics's hook was fantastic.

I love you so much. That is exactly how I feel. I would prefer if my partner and I could come to an amicable understanding of each other's beliefs. I cannot understand why someone would let a church dictate who and who they cannot marry, and furthermore, I cannot fathom why anyone would let religion come between a loving relationship. In the end I guess it's just my priorities at play. I value a loving relationship SO MUCH more than religion, since a loving relationship is far rarer. I guess I'm going to have to find somone with similar priorities who wouldn't mind shedding their religion for the sake of a relationship.