Atheist married to a christian

[ludwig]

How does that work? Aren't you living with someone who you feel is essentially delusional, and doesn't that put a strain on things?

[ludwig]

Beso
// How does a Christian deal with the atheist telling the children the truth about religion? //

Exactly, and vice versa. How does the atheist feel about the Christian teaching the kids about god? I suppose it just comes down how passionate each is about their belief. btw - Please contact mickbub on the JW thread.

[boxtops]

Interesting "...teaching the children the truth about religion",,, which of any of us (except the extremely religiously committed) could say which religion, and which branch of any religion, is actually "truth"? we were lucky, we were given the opportunity to see several religions in action, and when older, we followed one we liked, or not. None of us in my family and friends discuss religion very often and certainly don't query each other's choices - it's a private matter for the individual, it doesn't affect the others.

[pretty_snowdrop]

My husband accepts i don't believe in God and I accept that he does. Our children are fully aware i am not catholic and as yet i have not been tied up and burnt at the stake.
I will not tell them the Catholic faith is wrong, i will tell them why i don't believe and eventually they will choose for themselves.

[modeller]

pretty //am an Atheist and my husband is Catholic. Our children are also catholic and go to a catholic school. It puts no strain on our relationship why should it? //

I think the interesting point about that statement is: Why is it always that way round ?
I can't ever remember seeing a post where the children were brought up as non- believers . In your case they could possibly have gone to a normal state school, but no, they went to a catholic one. .

[pretty_snowdrop]

I chose to send them to catholic school, quite simply because the Catholic schools in our area are outstanding. The local catholic high school is one of the best in the LEA. I know adults who have been baptised purely to get their children into these schools. Sometimes you have to do what is best for our children.

[TeztMethod]

The Christian feels he or she may be able to convert his or her spouse and the atheist doesn't care if the other has delusions or not. Why should he/she? According to him/her everything about everyone is the result of one action building on another, namely, if life has meaning, it's to have fun or some lofty ideal.
Results? - They inevitably disagree about stuff and divorce, the Christian fighting it if he or she isn't a hypocrite, and the Atheist not really caring about the constitution of marriage anyway if he/she isn't a hypocrite. Alternatively, one of the two could be loose in his/her beliefs or the Atheist could just happen to believe things which suit the Christian.

[tweaker]

These are great books about the psychology of religion, all by Sigmund Freud.

Moses and Monotheism, Totem and Taboo, and, The future of an illusion.

Which explains the Oedipus complex, of when one grows old and has no father/mother to rely upon- where God was then invented. I might add that it does help if you know the bible. Especially Genesis. I'm not saying, nor does he, that religion is a bad thing, just what it has come too and peoples personal views, which, causes harm.

[beso]

Freud's writings said a lot about his own psychoses but his work is largely discredited particular the Oedipus Complex.

[Katie~77]

Im Catholic and I married an Atheist.... It was never an issue until we had children. Our daughter loves the whole Catholic "way of life" ie. Mass, prayers, festivals (for their true meaning), etc. My (now ex (lol)) husband goes out of his way to tell her that the whole "God-Squad" thing is nonsense. This upsets her greatly! My son, on the other hand, is following in his father's footsteps and isn't remotely interested in religion - which is fine by me.

[birdie1971]

Tweaker - “These are great books about the psychology of religion, all by Sigmund Freud.”

I don't accept that. Freud's work, as Beso rightly points out, has been largely discredited. Whilst Freud laid the foundations for the psychotherapy 'industry', many others have significantly diverged from his theories for the very simple reason that many of them are absurd.

[Katie~77]

Ooooh yes - Freud was a complete nut-job!!!!!!!

[beso]

Katie // festivals (for their true meaning)//

Here we go again. The religious love that word, "true". If there is such a thing as true meaning of these festivals it certainly isn't Christian.

We have debunked it many times here before. The two major supposedly Christian festivals Easter and Christmas have origins that long predate the Christian faith. The church supplanted their own myths upon the festivals that celebrated the Vernal Equinox (Easter) and the Winter Solstice (Yule aka Christmas).

In the case of Easter they didn't even bother to change the name. The word Easter comes from the same roots as Oestrus (and its many spelling variants). It is a fertility festival. Hence the predominance of eggs and rabbits in the tradition.

For Christmas they never even bothered to choose a date that was a plausible match for their myth.

If you want to celebrate your mythology on the same date as these old festivals then go ahead but spare us the arrogance of claiming that they belong to the church.

[tweaker]

Beso/Birdie.

My stating about Freud has nothing to do with his own mind state. I believe (actually know) these books are a great source of info into the roots of Monotheism, rather than say Paganism.

Now, I've been studying 'mind states' and the usual fabrication in the bible. And like it or not these books help along the road of study—taken with a pinch of salt or not.

By the way, what ever one thinks of Freud, have you actually read the books to make you own conclusions?

I'd suggest you do that, rather than the 'my mate down the pub thinks.... nut job.... blah blah blah...'

It only goes to show how Inconfident the human race is, once flown from the creature comforts of home and no mummy or daddy to look after us all. Oh, there is God!

[beso]

tweaker:

Having never had a desire to kill my father so I could have it off with my mother I am not inclined to take Freud's work seriously enough to waste my time reading it. Moreover I am not particularly interested in the thoughts of a deviant who would come up with an idea like that.

As I said earlier, Freud reveal a lot about his own psychoses and from what you say, religion screwed him up pretty badly too.

[tweaker]

Beso,

OK. I may point out that Oedipus, is only a reference in the books mentioned. But the book of Genesis- Adam, Eve and moreover Cain and Abel, and furthur on do stand the Oedipus test.

I class myself as Agnostic. I once believed, but there are so many errors in the bible I came to believe that the sacred books are very man made.

I look at all angles and arguments made by scholars from all over the globe, and they all seem to point in the same direction.
As for Freud, he is only my latest in studies. Who knows, I will no doubt come across other topics new to me and it'll throw a complete new analysis on the subject. The Freud books are worth reading however. And not just be dismissed because of what a 'one view' of him says.

[RATTER15]

I think all Atheists should marry Christians, it gives them a chance to turn them into rational thinking people :-)

[tweaker]

RATTER15,

I couldn't put it better myself. Well done.

[mike11111]

"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (or say)"

[boxtops]

IMO, tweaker deserves a thread of their own to discuss the relevance of the Oepidus principle to marriage - that could be interesting. The OP asked about practicalities though, not the principles behind marrying people of other faiths - several of us can say that it works, if we respect each other's right to different viewpoints.

[tweaker]

Boxtops,

I was going off subject, as a lot of others have. A thread on your suggestion would be interesting, if not damned hard! It would certainly get peoples brains working for rational answers!!!