The Moral Atheist

Love beyond belief

I’ve been dating the most wonderful girl for close on a year and a half now. She is the love of my life and I know that I will spend my life with her. I call her my Carbon Copy Girl because we are so alike. We do have one significant difference. My love is a Christian. I’ve heard it said that a couple have to have the same religious and political views to maintain a relationship. Well, clearly that isn’t the case with us. In the early days we spent a lot of time grappling with this and working out what this meant. What we realised is that it is about mutual respect. As soon as one of looks down on the other’s beliefs (or lack thereof) and considers them stupid for believing them then the relationship will be in turmoil. We utterly respect each other’s beliefs and engage in interesting respectful discussions about them. We both know where the other one is coming from and support each other. She reads my blog and I occasionally attend church with her. This shows that even though we don’t share the same view points we support each other regardless.

Probably the hardest part has been some of her friends. At the beginning there were those that said to her that she shouldn’t date me. They quoted the scripture “do not yoke yourself to the non believer”. Totally to her credit she never let them sway her.

A common atheist trait is to look down on believers as stupid for believing. Well, my Carbon Copy Girl is one of the most intelligent people I know. I understand what it is to believe and I know that you can’t just write off all believers off as unintelligent. In an alternative universe she is the atheist and I’m the believer. But we are still together!