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Forgive me if I am not doing this correctly, but I wanted to get some thoughts about my recent relationship with a Christian MD (resident) that I worked with in the pediatric ICU in one of the hospitals in my city in West Texas. I know how Stef would feel about my pitiful attempt at connecting with a person whom I know the relationship wouldn't work with, but I tried anyway. We immediately had a shared physical attraction (which I find is very important) but after talking with her for a while I could immediately tell that she was a similarly-minded person (at least in caring, compassion, understanding, listening). She is very intelligent (hence the MD) and we had plenty to talk about because we are both clinicians. We hit it off immediately. We talked about very basic things initially but I soon came to discover that she came from a very religious background (both parents are overseas missionaries). I of course, against my better judgement, decided to see where it would go, so I kept on talking. She asked what church I go to... to which I replied "I don't go to church". She replied "oh well that's okay, a lot of people prefer to not associate with a specific group. The reason I ask is that I was wondering if you'd like to go to a bible study with me some time." At this point I had to let the cat out of the bag. I looked her in the eyes: "I am an atheist", and watched the life drain from her face. She was deeply disturbed by this, and barraged me with language that made me feel her deep pity for me, but seemed to accomplish it by being non-abrasive. She is a very stubborn yet kind person, so we were able to just avoid conversations regarding this topic from then (3 weeks ago) until tonight. Tonight I went over to her place for dinner, since her schedule didn't allow us to meet much this month. We ate dinner and everything seemed fine. We watched an episode of MadMen and had some good laughs. At the end of the episode she said she had some reading to do for school. I had my tablet with me so I obliged, and two hours later she returned with the "We need to talk", and so we ended up having our final god chat and breaking up. After watching Stef's latest discussion with Peter Boghossian, I decided to approach the discussion in this manner: I reach objective conclusions based on objective analysis. Religion reaches objective conclusions based on subjective analysis. I also brought up that she doesn't live in my world, but that I do live in her world. I think I somewhat struck a chord with these statements, but the stubbornness was there to blockade her thought, and she had already made up her mind. She absolutely doesn't seem like she was ever physically abused, however I do think that she was psychologically tormented by the ever present fear of hell fire for eternity. I always try to be open to criticisms of inconsistencies and faulty logic, and make concerted efforts to live my life in a way that lets my actions speak louder than words. In the case of this woman, she watched as I saved the lives of 3 children in our pediatric ICU, yet it amazes me that my actions have NOT spoken louder than words, and that although I have gone out of my way to help her in her daily life, explained to her that I value truth above all things, I am still seen as going to hell... and the most upsetting part is that this is all coming from a physician. The person I thought would be able to reason more than any others that I had previously spoken with here in West Texas. Any ideas? Here's some very basic information about me: 1) I recently moved to Texas from Kansas, so have lived in the bible belt my whole life, but have moved to probably one of the most religious places in the entire United States. 2) I am a type 1 diabetic (pancreas no longer produces insulin) 3) I am a pediatric respiratory therapist 4) For about 6 years now I have had no contact with a woman on a physical level until this brief relationship 5) I work 12 hour night shifts 6) I am a very outgoing philanthropist, helping people on my days on and on my days off. 7) I am 29 years old (my dick hasn't been destroyed by the diabetes yet) I am a year-long follower of the show and have used it immensely to get across my view regarding religion. I feel like I tried my best to make it work, but my fear is that West Texas is absolutely the worst possible place I could be, and that I have more or less shut myself away from any kind of meaningful relationship that has a mutual understanding of what can and cannot be considered logical or reasonable. I know this whole thing seems very jumbled up, but I was just wondering if anyone thinks that I could have approached the relationship or conversations differently. Should I move elsewhere? (Some places are less insane/less religious/less statist than others) Thank you so much for bearing with my communication skills, I know that they could use some work. I'm desperately trying to avoid depression, but it feels like I'm inevitably headed in that direction