At least he has for me by questioning why I think what I think. I was able to separate my true beliefs from just believing things because I grew up believing it. Hope says much the same. Many nonreligious partners bring a painful history with religion into the relationship, including some deep resentments. Some have experienced betrayal, rejection, fear, anger, or even complete disowning from religious families and communities. Being in a loving relationship with a religious believer can help the nonbeliever to transcend this unproductive resentment. I no longer automatically view someone who identifies as religious with derision, and I can in fact admire their faith, and I instead align myself with them based on the larger question of whether or not they are a good person in the broader sense.
Some couples with different worldviews go out of their way to avoid the topic.
Atheist dating a muslim man
But if the rest are any indication, including many of my survey respondents, they might be missing out on a good thing. One respondent after another described having deeper conversations with their partners and learning more about each other in the process than they ever did in their shared-belief relationships.
When you have the same belief, you assume a lot without asking. Nolan, an atheist married to a former Methodist, echoes Alise. Others say the difference has increased their mutual trust. My husband is the only person I have entrusted with my nonbelief, and he has been kind and considerate and loving in a way that I know not even my closest friends or family members would be.
And through it all we have realized that our relationship is built on a strong foundation. But living with someone whose beliefs are different—especially someone on the far side of the chasm between the natural and supernatural—makes a person more likely to think deeply and well about what he or she believes. I know I thought much more deeply and intensely about my own beliefs when Becca was still religious, even though we only rarely engaged the questions.
Just the presence of the difference was like a whetstone against which I sharpened my mind. I have joined Meetups and groups both secular and religious I would have otherwise never gone to and met some wonderful people.
Patty former Methodist, now agnostic: My life is richer and more meaningful as a result of this. His questions have helped me look deeper into my faith practices. Since the birth of my daughters, I have had to take a much closer look at my own worldview in order to be able to explain it to them in terms they can understand and in a way that will not offend my partner. One benefit stood head and shoulders above the rest in the survey: His nonbelief has certainly challenged my thinking about certain religious traditions, which has caused me to think hard about what specifically is important to me and why instead of just something the way everyone in my family has always done it.
In turn, I think I have led her to more clearly understand some of the points where she and the Catholic Church do not agree. So, naturally, I ignored the spinach once again and asked him where he was from. He said Iraq, grabbed a napkin, and wiped my chin. From that point on we were pretty inseparable.
R and I would talk and talk and talk during all of our downtime. It was pretty intense and involved him killing a man in self-defence, leaving his Mom behind at the Turkish border, walking through Turkey to Greece and eating wild plants just to stay alive.
Atheist Life Hacks: How To Date A Muslim Man - Godless Mom
All when he was 15 and alone. I told him I wanted to write his story for him. So, he started to come to my apartment to work on the story and before we knew it, we were officially dating. Within just a few weeks of us making it official, he began to get irritated with how I dressed. Jeans and a t-shirt were too much for him, and he would become particularly uncomfortable if that t-shirt was a v-neck.
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He never made me change though, and it came across as just simple irritation like I would be if he wore crocs, so I let it go. He also began to treat me differently around other men, barely allowing me to talk and constantly commenting on how all of them were after me. It appeared, to me, as though it was a huge struggle for him — he wanted to adjust to Canadian life, accepting that men and women here are more or less equal, but you could see him struggling with what his own culture pounded into him. I respected him for fighting against what he had always known.
The Seven Benefits of a Relationship Between an Atheist and a Believer
But then he told his mother about me, during a phone call from Iraq. She kept telling him, any time they spoke, that he could not marry an infidel.
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He agreed that it was silly to be talking about this now, but as time went by, he would talk about Islam more and more. It will never happen. I have always been an atheist.