Cupids Dating Blog

I'm pretty sure the feeling was mutual, because we went out on a couple of dates together. Now, the thing is, people's religion isn't a problem for me, but my stance on the subject does seem to be a problem for a lot of people. It's important, I think, to respect people's right to practice their faith and I do understand that people want to have "Christian relationships," but I don't see that a lot of religious people feel any need at all to respect my beliefs.

I think it's a pretty common misconception that to be agnostic or atheist is simply an absence of belief and can, therefore, be ignored as a point of view. This is pretty unreasonable, though. If someone believes there's no god - or in the case of the agnostics that the workings of our universe are too complex for us to "know" if there's a god or what that god might want from us - then that has real consequence for how they understand their significance in relation to the world.

I believe that whatever the facts may be about god or gods, I have no idea what they are. I think, therefore, that it's inappropriate for me to base my entire life and worldview around traditions that I had no control over and ethical constructs set down by people I've never met, who live in a very different world from mine. I think, on the other hand, we have to be responsible for the world we live in, we have to try to find things that matter to us, and we have try to understand our place, role and function in the world without relying on categorical assumptions about the nature of things. Life is about searching for meaning and creating meaning. It's about sincerely asked questions, not habitual answers and blind acceptance.

Now, a religion can give people a context within which they can grapple with the questions the world presents to us, but when the thing they come across is the absolute and only truth I think there's a problem. It seems a bit prideful to me. Religion just doesn't help me understand the world and it doesn't mean anything to me. I think pretending otherwise does everyone a disservice. For me to pretend to pray, mocks the prayer of other people. It's insincere.

So this Christian cutie I met got upset with me when we went to dinner and I didn't want to say grace. That was it for her. We couldn't see each other anymore, because I "had no respect for her beliefs." I think, though, that it's the other way around. She's the one who didn't respect mine. I was not allowed to not take part. I didn't comment, I didn't try to pressure her into changing, I just simply did not want to take part. So now a relationship that was otherwise happy and healthy and interesting is over before it started. That doesn't seem like a particularly Christian maneuver to me, but what do I know? It's such a waste. How many people do we meet who matter to us that we can afford to turn our backs on them? I don't know how to get over a relationship that that didn't get started. You'd think it was easier but it's not.