Is religious belief that important to you in a relationship?

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Certainly ... and for the "religious" (or even for anyone, actually), there is the matter of not being "unequally yoked", so to speak.

I wouldn't care, but the problem is that my lack of conviction one way or the other might be a reason for a religious woman to dislike me. I can put on the suit and pretend to be serious for a while, but sooner or later I'll end up bringing out any number of weird jokes that I bring up from time to time, and then the gig is up. I guess it's better to be open from the start and be rejected early on before the emotional investment becomes too large.

Examples:

Bloody Mary!

http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s09e14-bloody-mary


Cannibalism!

http://nobeliefs.com/communion/communion.htm

Last edited by sgrannel on 17 May 2011, 10:56 am, edited 1 time in total.

I disagree, they vary just the same as those with religious belief.

I know that my Godfather doesn't believe at all in god, he researches and tries to act with respect toward those who do believe though (and researches their culture to make sure he doesn't offend without intent). He travels a lot.

As regarding religious belief and its importance in relationships, for me an important thing is respect, thus if a person didn't respect my right to have a different opinion (inclusive of religion), there would be a problem. I try to treat people with respect in turn. Insults, talking down to someone and/or trying to replace their viewpoint are all things that I view as indications of a lack of respect.

I've just had to look that "unequally yoked" up, and found the bible verse about it. It's a bit extreme "touch no unclean thing" indeed.

It was for me, for a long time, but eventually I managed it. These days I just look upon a religion as another nutty hobby, just like my obsession with sound recordings or whatever. I agree that a couple should be able to talk about pretty much anything together, but in ptactice I think it's dangerous to expect that to be universal, sometimes it's best to say nothing.

religion has no influence on my life in any way. i never talk about god because i have nothing to say about the matter.

in australia, it is rare that one meets a person who is religious, and generally,the reigious one's are borderline lunatics, and i will say that religion is not something i am interested to consider bothering about.

I have to be honest. I am weary of dating someone that is moderately religious. Ultra religious is out of the question because I cannot deal with someone basing their whole life on a single book whether it is the Bible or the Koran.

I am open but weary.

Tolerance is more important to me than religious beliefs. *shrug*

Yes, and I actually hesitated a bit in posting that. But if you can think about that along the line of a specific society, culture or sect, even some atheists do not want "the impure" among them.

This is it for me, too.

This. I'd much rather be with someone of a different religious/spiritual background than one of the same background but who is intolerant.

Also, political alignment is much more important than religious alignment in my personal opinion. I'm somewhere between centrist and liberal economically, and socially libertarian. Extreme liberals and extreme conservatives bother me equally. And since the majority of my own faith of Christianity tends toward the controlling conservative background, it's much more important that I find someone of my own personal belief towards life itself, rather than who created whom...

A healthy perspective.

My experience stems only from interaction with friends, and I'd assume it would translate to my choice of partner. To me it is just important that the person has made piece with god, in what form soever. What I mean by that is that the person must have invested alot of thought into his or her religion, and not just adopted it out of habit or because they were raised to do so. If I have the feeling the the religious belief is just a product of mere propaganda or tradition, I don't bother with the person. The same holds true for people who chose no religion. Being a fanatic jerk who thinks that his or her own belief are the only true in existance, and that he must firmly try on every occasion to convert people are not my kind of people. If your religious belief takes a higher place in your heart than the love and respect for your fellow human beings, you are not only a sad person, but a hypocrite also.

when we met, my husband was a devout christian and i was a strident atheist. he actually considered us married from the moment we slept together as we were technically wedded in the eyes of god according to the bible.

we had extensive philosophical debates about religion over the years but since we respected each other it didn't create a rift. honestly, we each thought the other person was somewhat blind to reality and perhaps slightly delusional, but the dfference of opinion mattered less than the core of our relationship.

over the years he became more of a theist, and i came to respect and admire religious beliefs. we fundamentally influenced each other's perspectives on religion because we kept our minds open and understood that the person belhind the beliefs was more important than the beliefs themselves.

luckily childraising was no big deal as my husband doesn't attend a religious institution anyway, and believes in adult baptism. so our daughter can choose for herself. my in-laws wanted to sneak and get her baptized behind my back when she was a baby, but thankfully they decided it would not be worth it to kill our relationship.

I love this topic so I'm going to ask you because I cannot - for political reasons - ask my step-daughter's mother and I know you'll give me a straight answer.

If your husband believes in adult baptism so that infant baptism wouldn't matter and you don't believe anything at all so infant baptism wouldn't matter... then why does it matter that she not be baptized as an infant? Wouldn't it be nothing more than a sprinkling of water to make the in-laws happy? Couldn't she be baptized again if that was her choice? If she didn't care for any religion or chose a non-Christian one, wouldn't the baptism be a moot point, anyway? Why fuss over an infant baptism? Where's the logic?

Religion would only be important if it was problematic. I am very tolerant of strange ideas, and have many. The problem is more likely to be that my beliefs are too unorthodox for many people, whether they be theist or atheist or something else.