Category: Dating and Relationships
Hi all, is there anyone who is unsure of a relationship working out or not due to seperate religious beliefs?
I think it's a common error to believe that opposites attract. I can't see an atheist making life easy for a christian, but then again I've come across atheists who would marry a christian simply because of the good morals in christianity. Perhaps it would be a lifetime struggle trying to get the other to convert. Boy, that would be a living hell! But who knows? Maybe the friction would only serve to make the relationship stronger.
I have had a christchen girlfriend before and me being atheist, but I can see where there would be a problem if they are both very strong in their beliefs.
I am christian orthodox and my girlfriend is agnostick but we don't have any problems. We just respect what each other believe.
We never tried and convert each other.
If the religion expected you to obey certain rules and laws as in the case of islam,I can't see it working.
I think the more serious the relationship becomes, the more potential there is for problems. I think that if both partners have very different beliefs, then while you are just in an uncommitted relationship, i.e. not living together, this could potentially work, but I think that once you start talking about further commitment, then that is where there could be issues. If one is a christian and one a muslem for instance, where do you get married? if one believes strongly and one doesn't, do you get married in church for the benefit of the Christian? or would the non believer feel like a hipocrit for standing up in church and vowing to god until "death us do part".
And what if there are children. I think that the arrival of children has the greatest potential for problems, will you bring them up christian or atheest, muslem or christian, (depending on the mix of religion of course), do you baptise or not, do you circumsize if jewish but then what of the non jewish parent.
no it's not as straightforward as putting your beliefs aside, especially when more parties enter into the equasion.
love certainly isn't always enough :)
I agree with SugarBaby. I would think partners who can respect each other's beliefs could be together in a relationship, and although it would be hard at first, I think the marriage part could be worked out somehow. However, the hardest thing would be if there were children involved at some point. Catholics and other Christian/religious groups require a child to be baptized and/or go thru other rituals/ceremonies as a part of their practyices. Also what religion (or not) to raise the child in, especially since each parent of that belief would likely think their beliefs/ways are right in some ways from the other parent. It would be one thing to debate on or discuss one another's different beliefs with each other, but I would think it would be confusing for a child, especially if the parents were total opposites like religious (Christian, Jew, Moslim) and atheist, or with different practices/beliefs like Catholic/Christian and Moslim?Jew (any combination of those.)
I agree, the threee things that anyone considering marriage or a serious realtionship need to agree on is how to handle finances, religion, and basic politics.
The leading cause of divorce in America today is money issues. Religious differences also add stress to a relationship.
My parents married and my father was raised Roman Catholic and my mother was raised Baptist. There were some pretty good arguments, but they finally worked their diffeences out by attending a Lutheran church.