Atheist Married to a Christian
Living in the bible belt I come in contact with all flavours of christians from the most extreme followers to those that only use the label. Being surrounded by believers can be quite annoying and disheartening sometimes especially when being married to one. My wife is a moderate christian meaning she pretty much straddles the fence between faith and reality.
As a child her family attended a Methodist church. From what I have gathered and seen going to church and practicing the beliefs they proclaim to have are not very important to any of them. I suspect being in the south is was simply done because it was the social norm and her parents themselves were raised with those traditions as well. In the three years I have known her she has attended church only twice and I have never heard of her mother or father, who are divorced, going to church either.
If asked my, wife will say she is a christian, that she believes in god, that there is a heaven and a hell, jesus is the saviour, the very basic ideals that generally all christians share. From discussions it is clear she has never read the bible much at all. This is very frustrating because I have trouble understanding why someone believes in something yet has never read the one key document that those beliefs are based on. It’s mind boggling to me.
I am thankful that she does have some understanding of science and accepts that evolution is a fact and that there was probably a big bang. However, neither of these changes her mind on her other christian beliefs. I truly don’t know why she holds onto to her core christian concepts when she rejects everything else. Maybe with time she will come to her senses. All I can do is plant the seeds of reason and be a good husband.
Although we have very different views on religion it really hasn’t affected our relationship, we both knew up front when we met what the other’s views were. Sure there have been a few discussions turned into arguments but in the end we simply agree not to agree. I know it cannot be any easier for her to be a christian with an atheist spouse than it is for me the other way around. Its very strange I know but I guess love truly transcends such core differences as conflicting understandings of reality.
I suspect that many people that claim to be christian are very similar to my wife. For some reason they want to continue to shut their eyes to reason and not accept that what they were taught as a child is no different than Santa Claus or any other nonsense they eventually learned was not true. I understand it can be hard to let go of something that one has believed in so long. Even though it has brought comfort and hope these feelings are based on a skewed understanding of reality and can only hinder a persons true potential. Hopefully my wife and other religious moderates will embrace truth and in time break the shackles of religion and embrace reality.
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