ConservativeAtheist

Do you think the higher morals come from them being Christians, or that they would have higher morals regardless? If they stopped being Christian, would they also lose whatever sense of morality they had? I see your point, but I think a large segment of Christians (at least in America), are only Christians because they were raised as such, and would abandon their belief system with only the slightest nudge. Do you think this is an accurate assessment? That sounds very awful, and I am sorry to hear that happened to you. What do you mean by the last part, with the victims?

I am very interested in your experience. Does she agree with you on political issues (I assume you are a libertarian)? Do you have discussions about God/Religion? Is she bothered by you not being an atheist, does she or did she try to convert you? I agree with you 100% that statism is the prime danger of our day, not religion (at least not Christianity). Could you elaborate on the "level of moral thinking is also usually higher" part. Superficially, it seems religious christians have higher morals (even as compared to apathetic Christians because of their [increased] fear of god. Maybe its the reverse: I speculate that maybe higher moral Christians are drawn to those like them and a system of thought that endorses their views. And do you think the distinction of her being catholic rather than protestant is material? Catholics often send their kids to catholic school up through college. Do you think this means a lot of catholics don't really believe in God, but just kind of stick to it because its so much a part of their community? Or does it make them more fundamentalist than the average Christian It seems I always hear 2 contradictory stereotypes of catholics: that they are strict/dogmatic and that they are extremely permissible/liberal-left wing. I can see how both those could be true, even for the same person, but it seems unlikely. Where do you meet these other people? By skeptical do you mean explicitly atheist? What do you mean by "Christianity survivor"? Could you elaborate on your history, how you were raised religiously-speaking, and how you became atheist?

I don’t know if this is exactly the right forum for this topic, but it seems close enough. I am posing this question assuming most members of FDR are atheist. For any of you who are Christian, it is the opposite: would you date/marry an atheist? And, more generally, do you think it is advisable/worth it for an atheist-voluntaryist to pursue Christians for the purposes of dating/marriage. For the record, I was not raised religiously, and only believed in God incredibly briefly around the age of 6 or so. I have always had a bit of a soft spot for Christianity, perhaps because of the left’s opposition to it, and regularly attend Christian student groups at my college. I am a conservative personally/morally, and an anarcho-capitalist in the Austrian tradition. I can see the obvious problems with an atheist marrying a Christian, notably: do you tell your children about Hell? As an atheist, I would say you shouldn’t. However, if you were a Christian, who believed non-believers went to Hell, you would be a terrible parent if you didn’t tell your children about Hell. You would also be a terrible spouse if you didn’t attempt to convert them, right? Stefan has made the point that (paraphrasing) you don’t find the perfect person, you find someone “good enough” (I can’t recall his exact phrasing). I would say you don’t even need to find the person who is best for you, but someone who is good enough (who has the same foundational values as you). Over time, through shared experiences, you create the optimal relationship, and that person becomes the best person for you. Is religion a foundational value, or merely an accident of birth/upbringing? According to a brief internet search, about 10% of Americans consider themselves atheist. And probably a single digit percent are libertarian, and about 10% philosophically oppose spanking. The chances of finding someone, especially female, who overlaps all 3 of these seems incredibly small. There is a lot of talk on the internet, and on these forums about MGTOW, feminism, etc. A lot of the talk is male complaining about how hard it is to find quality, feminine women. The Christian community, however, has a lot of these women. In “The Truth about STDs” and “The Truth About Sex”, Stefan presents the Teachman study and the Heritage Foundation study about premarital sexual partners and stable marriage rates. So fewer premarital partners = more stable marriages. The Christian church is virtually the only major societal organization encouraging women to wait until marriage. I’m not saying all (or even a majority of) Christian girls are virgins before marriage, but nearly all girls who do wait/are waiting until marriage are Christian. There are a lot of one-off observations I have made in the past year or so getting to know Christians better. I have had more in depth, philosophical, conversations with Christians at Bible study than I’ve ever had at an atheist meetup. I’ve also noticed that often atheists, especially older atheists, are especially nasty when talking about Christians. In my campus groups, I’ve never heard a mean word said about atheists, or about homosexuals, and nobody has ever tried to convert me. Through prayer, and confession, Christians seem more interested in self-knowledge than the average american or even atheist/agnostic. It also instructive to remember that communism is an explicitly atheist philosophy, which famously opposed religion (at least in principle). Christianity gets blamed, perhaps rightly, for a lot of wars/death that occurred when the church and state were fused. But even if we blame Christianity entirely, it doesn’t come close to the amount of death given out by the atheist-communists in the 20th century. This was a very long post, and I want to facilitate a discussion on the matter. I figured this community would be optimal, and I am interested in everyone’s input. I couldn’t find any similar discussion on FDR (if anyone can I would greatly appreciate it). So, what do you guys think?