This Atheist at a Christian Wedding

a reply to: WarminIndy

There is a verse in the Bible "My name is on their lips but their hearts are far from me". I don't think now the OP is actually really an atheist, because if you say you are something and then you do things that are contrary to what you say you believe, then you don't really believe in what you say.

I read that verse as meaning the complete opposite of what you're saying -- that there are "Christians" out there who go through the motion but don't have "God" in their hearts. In other words, "Christians" who don't even realize that they are atheists.

I'm not Catholic but have been in a Catholic church with friends, I never did genuflect and wasn't expected to either. Also, I have been at many Shabbos dinners with friends and not one time did I go through the whole candle ritual like all the other women and neither was I expected to.

Then we have a difference of opinion of what it means to respect someone else's customs. You chose not to participate in a Catholic mass or in a Shabbos dinner, you chose to act as an observer. When I'm at a mass with my Catholic friends, I participate in the mass, with the exception of taking communion, because that's a sacrament to them; not even all Catholics can take communion. When I'm at a Seder with my Jewish friends, I participate in the Seder. I'm not saying that either of our ways of doing it are better, I'm just saying that I choose to engage and celebrate with my friends and family.

If he had respect toward their faith to pretend to do it, who was he really showing that he was an atheist?

Why does he have to "show" anyone that he's an atheist?

I would say that every Christian there who saw him pretend, but knew he was an atheist were really thinking that he was not really an atheist. They probably thought he is just going through a phase in his life.

I would say that is an enormous assumption to make, unless you personally know his family and his relationship with them. My theist friends and family don't assume that I'm not an atheist because I choose to celebrate with them.

a reply to: WakeUpBeer sounds an uncomfortable situation. Being from the UK, that situation just wouldn't happen. It would be greeted with s'n-word's and laughter all round. I remember being at a friends who is married to an American girl. Her folks came to visit and when I left the room. They all had a prayer for me and my illness. I was so embarrassed. It's just not the done thing in the UK.