Why an Atheist in the R&S Forum?

[myuen2]

Originally Posted by LearnMe

When my wife and I got married, I asked my father to be my best man. In part to avoid having to pick one of my four good friends who made up the rest of my side of the wedding party. At our reception my father made a toast, and I'll never forget what he said...

He said to everyone at the wedding that if anything happened between my wife and me, my parents would take my wife.

You know that making a confession won't get you a place in Heaven. Unfortunately, public debasement is the atheist fashion of the day to seek absolution and get a pass from the mob coming after you.


Your father knows you. And your four good friends were a type like Miles, in the movie Sideways, who would spend your bachelor week, before the wedding, with you prowling the Californian wine country for a sexual fling before settling down.

[cb2008]

Originally Posted by LearnMe

What the goat knows about falling off mountain sides is because of gravity, whether they know about it or not, and either way the burden is to maintain sure footing. ...

One can say the same thing about Divinity, it exists whether one knows about it or not, theist, agnostic, or atheist, the burden is to maintain a sure footing.

[cb2008]

Originally Posted by LearnMe

I've got countless songs in my music library that attempt to answer this question...

Let us know when they have one.

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by myuen2

You know that making a confession won't get you a place in Heaven. Unfortunately, public debasement is the atheist fashion of the day to seek absolution and get a pass from the mob coming after you.


Your father knows you. And your four good friends were a type like Miles, in the movie Sideways, who would spend your bachelor week, before the wedding, with you prowling the Californian wine country for a sexual fling before settling down.

As much as I appreciate a good Sideways reference, you lost me.

[chief scum]

Originally Posted by ElijahAstin

Sorry, but you’re wrong. I would fall out of love with my wife if she turned out to be unfaithful, or became abusive, or did any number of other bad things that are inconsistent with my vision of who a good friend, partner, and parent to our child should be. If I did those same bad things to her, she would be well within our rights to do the same.

I wouldn’t fall out of love instantaneously. I would probably experience a period of disbelief and try to restore our relationship to its prior healthy and mutually respectful equilibrium. I would also be heartbroken and mourn the loss of the relationship. But sooner or later I would fall out of love and move on, however awful and surreal the feeling would be at the time. This is something I never expect to happen and greatly hope will never happen. But it could happen, and it would hardly defy the laws of physics if it ever did happen.

It’s called having self-respect, and setting boundaries, and knowing what you can and can’t take and do and don’t deserve in a loving relationship. You might hold yourself to different standards, which is fine for you and 100% your prerogative. But you are completely and undeniably wrong if you assert that other peoples’ vision of love is a mere transaction, or “barter,” to use your parlance.

Why did you use the word unfaithful in your post? I ask because of all the mockery over the word faith.

So, in times that you aren't present to see with your own eyes, you have faith that your wife is faithful to you. And that goes both ways.

Your post seems religious, but according to your personal view of everything.

[myuen2]

Originally Posted by cb2008

One can say the same thing about Divinity, it exists whether one knows about it or not, theist, agnostic, or atheist, the burden is to maintain a sure footing.

Good response. You aced it.


I hope LearnMe would reflect on this. He is smart enough to see both sides of the coin. While he knows the theist's faith in Divinity is driven by the need for security, the atheist has no such excuse for committing the sin of gullibility. He is God unto himself. Is he afraid of nothingness? The mysterious void is too scary?


Emptiness is the holy grail of spirituality. A state where reason cannot go.

[myuen2]

Originally Posted by ElijahAstin

As much as I appreciate a good Sideways reference, you lost me.

Let me clue you in then. LearnMe is the Jack Cole character, the quintessential atheist. He doesn't believe in God. He just wants to have a good time in this world. To hell with the next.

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by chief scum

Why did you use the word unfaithful in your post? I ask because of all the mockery over the word faith.

So, in times that you aren't present to see with your own eyes, you have faith that your wife is faithful to you. And that goes both ways.

Your post seems religious, but according to your personal view of everything.

Unfaithful is just a synonym for adultery. Don’t overthink it.

[chief scum]

Originally Posted by ElijahAstin

Unfaithful is just a synonym for adultery. Don’t overthink it.

It is funny that you apply the word overthink to me, because I view everything from the elementary level.

You were writing about love, and I wonder if you have ever experienced taking care of someone through the hardest time of their life. Where nothing is about you.

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by chief scum

It is funny that you apply the word overthink to me, because I view everything from the elementary level.

Weird flex, but okay.

Originally Posted by chief scum

You were writing about love, and I wonder if you have ever experienced taking care of someone through the hardest time of their life. Where nothing is about you.

I pitched in with caregiving when my mother slowly died of ALS in my late teens and early twenties. Any other questions?