I am a Catholic man dating an agnostic girl. our relationship is great, but down the road the religious question must be answered. Any advice?
2007-04-30 04:07:15 · 10 answers · asked by archD 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Relationships involving two people with different, even conflicting, belief systems can work. It's just going to take more of an effort than it would if you both shared a common belief.
As long as you both understand this, there should not be a problems in the short-term.
What you really need to look out for is the long-term.
What happens is, after several years, one of you (perhaps both) will develop an increased level of devotion to your respective belief system(s).
This is almost guaranteed to happen. And this is going to upset the balance that has existed up to this point.
The question here is - will you two be able to reconcile the increased devotion to one's own (or both) belief system(s)?
What do you do in those circumstances? I have no idea. That's why inter-faith relationships worry me a little.
2007-04-30 06:31:59 · answer #1 · answered by Daver 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I honestly don't know, but if this question could not be solved with respect to the beliefs of both lovers involved, what hope could there be for peaceful coexistence between cultures?
I think you should consider a solution which respects the convictions of both sides without trying to push one into a direction to make them uncomfortable. If you want to get married, and she's all right with a religious ceremony, fine, but if not, a civil union will do just as well. And *if* you should end up with children, having parents with different beliefs will be a brilliant object lesson for kids on tolerance.
2007-04-30 04:19:19 · answer #2 · answered by Mrenn 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The way I see it, if you are in love with each other your religious preferences shouldn't keep you from being together. My husband considers himself Christian, and I'm decidedly not. I consider myself more spiritual than religious, but we've been together for six years now and have been married for two and a half of them. We simply agree to disagree when it comes to our religious beliefs, and neither of us tries to convert the other one, we've also agreed not to force religion of any kind on our children and just allow them to decide for themselves which path feels right to them when they get older.
We have conversations about it occasionally, and try to explain why we believe what we believe, but the most important thing when talking about it is to be respectful and not condescending. Just be careful not to have the "My religion is better than your religion" attitude or the "I'm right cause my religion is right" attitude, and you two should be just fine. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that you don't have either of these attitudes so just remember that respect goes a long way.
She may decide that she believes the same as you do, or she may not. Only time will tell. Just don't push her into becoming Catholic, and if she gets pushy about why she thinks that Catholicism is wrong just let her know that while you respect her opinion you don't agree with her, and then agree to disagree. Sometimes you have to break up religious conversations and come back to it later to prevent one of you from saying something you don't really mean. In the end, if you two are meant to be together then you shouldn't let your religious differences come between you.
2007-04-30 04:25:20 · answer #3 · answered by Jenna 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If you don't think you will be able to accpet her for her veiws on religion then you should break it off now. Not sure of her veiws but of all agnostics I've met, they were accepting of other religious beliefs, without conforming. So, it depends on what religous obstacles you think you may face down the road...
2007-04-30 04:15:52 · answer #4 · answered by zef 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't see a problem with it. (It's actually easier, since agnostics don't have strong religious beliefs, versus dating somebody with a dogmatic religion.)
Should you ever get married, you may inevitably need to discuss what religion children would be brought into.
2007-04-30 04:14:28 · answer #5 · answered by Lunarsight 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'm an atheist and I'm with a catholic guy and we talk about everything and we're very open and honest with one another and that's what's important- we both compromise and it works out just fine.
2007-04-30 04:27:12 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
get it over with now.
2007-04-30 04:16:41 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
just don't talk about religion and you guys won't fight!
2007-04-30 04:11:04 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 2⤋
if she can't make up her mind about this, what else is she going to be wishy-washy about?
dump her NOW!
2007-04-30 04:10:58 · answer #9 · answered by Yahoo admins are virgins 5 · 0⤊ 7⤋
convert her with your TOOL
2007-04-30 04:10:23 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 6⤋