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Of my personal knowledge, I officiated at the wedding of two friends of mine (though it was not in a church).
None of my business, but are you a Justice of the Peace?
No. I exercised my First Amendment right to practice religion freely and got ordained from a mail order diploma mill.
38½ years here, chief.
Which is more than I can say for a lot of Godless marriages.
My wife and I are both atheists. We got married for the same reasons any couple does--we loved each other and wanted make a formal committment before our friends and family. We had a home ceremony performed by one of my neighbors, who happened to be a federal judge. And even though we have a godless marriage, we've been together and faithful to each other for 26 years. And still going strong. Which is more than I can say for a lot of religious marriages.
Especially when there are children, I find a divorce something so horrible...
I was thinking more along the lines of a church wedding, vows before God and all.
If an atheist is having a religious wedding, it is proabably to appease someone else; such as the spouce, family, or friends etc.Why do atheists get married?
I have wondered this for some time now; and I'm just asking out of curiosity.
Yes, there are exceptions -- like a common-law marriage or marriage by a justice of the peace.
Well, as I said, when I made this thread, I was thinking only of the traditional say-your-vows-to-God marriage.
If it's that toxic, the kids still suffer the most, eh?Not always.
There are marriages where the environment is so toxic, it is actually better for the kids for the parents to divorce.
I don´t know. I don´t know any atheist who had a church wedding and did "vows before God" and all.I was thinking more along the lines of a church wedding, vows before God and all.
I attended a wedding for a couple of friends over ten years ago. They were and are not religious. But, she's of Italian descent, and her extended family is made up primarily of Catholics. This includes her parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc. They had a large wedding in a Catholic church partly out of tradition and partly out of pressure from her family. Not that they were forced to do it in a church, exactly, but rather out of respect for their family who encouraged them to have a proper church ceremony.
I expect that something similar happens when atheist couples have a church wedding. If their parents are paying for it, and their parents want it in a church, and the couple has no real objections to it other than their lack of belief, I don't see a problem. Also, it can make for a large spectacle, which many people want out of a wedding.
I don´t question that Skaloop´s explanation applies to some atheists who participate in the religious ceremony. I do, however, have a different concept of "respect". Just saying.Good point.
Tradition and respect of the (religious) family, certainly also plays a role.
Good point.
Tradition and respect of the (religious) family, certainly also plays a role.
Something else: What does interest me, are there "2nd Generation" Atheists?
Or are Atheists "converts" from any religion?
My dad's an atheist, and I'm an atheist, so yeah, there are second generation atheists.
It's actually something I used to think about a fair bit. I mean, I was born and raised without any religion, and stayed an atheist by default. It wasn't a struggle, I didn't have to explore my faith or turn away from it. And when I hear stories about some of the things some Christian people went through when they made the transition to atheism, it makes me feel like I had the easy way. On the other hand, I was never not an atheist. And would that make either them or me "more" or "less" of an atheist?
Like in some vampire movies, the ones that are born vampires often hold themselves in higher esteem than the ones who were turned later in life.
Or, to paraphrase Bane in The Dark Knight Rises:
"Ahh, you think atheism is your ally? You merely adopted non-belief. I was born in it. Molded by it."
But that was in my younger days. Since then, I have realized that the only factor defining an atheist is a lack of belief in any god. That's it. How long you've been one or how you came to be one doesn't matter one bit. There's nothing else to follow or do or believe that would have any bearing on how well one is being an atheist.
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