DarkBronzePlant

Hey, is this where Misc Religious Discussions went to?

Anyhow, my fiancee and I visited with her family for a week. Those of you who know me know that her father is a retired minister, and her mother was the church secretary. Neither of them have any idea that my fiancee or I are atheists. Her dad is rather liberal for a minister, but even the discussion we had took me by surprise.

We were talking about comets, and the discussion turned to Hale-Bop (sp?) and, of course, the Heaven's Gate cult that donned Nikes and then ate poisoned applesauce, believing that the spaceship flying behind the comet would whisk them away. Anyhow, my fiancee's mother made some comment to the effect of "the crazy things that some people will believe."

So my fiancee's father turned to her and said, "Well, dear, look at us."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, what do we believe? That when we die, we're all going to leave our bodies and rise up into the air, and join some heavenly kingdom along with someone who died thousands of years ago. Doesn't that sound crazy?"

Her mother was at a loss for words, finally muttering, "well, that's different."

"Why? Just because that's our belief?"

At this point, I was biting my tongue--hard--to keep from either laughing or jumping in and whole-heartedly agreeing with him.

Later on during our visit, both of them voiced their disgust with the U.S.'s inwaivering support for Israel, but that seemed much less shocking after the previous discussion.

Anyhow, just thought I would share.

The Admiral

Darkbronze

No intense offended but I think you owe it to those good people to gently break the news to them.

The Admiral

DarkBronzePlant

Admiral,

On the one hand I'd like to. But on the other hand, here are two people who have generally been really good parents to my fiancee. Although it would be entirely nonsensical, it would break their hearts to know that their daughter (and at this point, probably me too) doesn't believe in god, and would thusly be destined for hell. Plus, I get along really well with them, and actually consider myself lucky to (considering all of the fiancee/in-law horror stories out there), so I sure as heck don't want to screw that up if at all possible.

So in general, there doesn't seem to be a really good reason to tell them, and there are plenty of reasons not to. My parents, on the other hand... if the topic arose, I'd have no intention of hiding my (dis)beliefs.

BigJim

That's really cool. So he's actually rational about it, and objective enough to look at his beliefs from another's point of view.

He reminds me of the former minister at my mom's presbyterian church who was also a family friend. My mom was the only one in my family who regularly attended church, but our families could have dinner together without it ever being uncomfortable. I remember him talking about being raised Catholic, but when he got "the call", he became a protestant minister instead of a priest because he didn't want to give up ome of the finer things in life (sex).

cricket

I'm glad to hear he feels this way. I'm surrounded by religious types and nobody will admit it's crazy.

I'm glad he realizes xtianity is just one belief among many, and he knows how crazy it sounds.

So why does he still believe it?

thebeave

Its funny how mainstream Christians often don't recognize the absurdity of their own beliefs, but are quick to ridicule beliefs of cults and other religions. My xian relatives used to joke about those kooky Mormons and Jehovah Witness's all the time, without recognizing their own nonsense. Only now do I realize how equally insane they are.