Observations and inanities by a second-shift assistant supervisor in the Puppy-Grinding division of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy® (our motto: "Sure it's cruel, but think of the jobs!"), your host, Brent Rasmussen.
Frightened little world
This is just the most extreme version of a theme that runs through so many people in the name of religion. A Muslim in England sets fire to his daughters because they are becoming too Western:
A Jewish girl I dated once said that her grandmother had said she would sit shiva (the ritual mourning period) if the girl ever married a non-Jew.
I have heard otherwise presumably intelligent people say that intermarriage for Jews was a silent Holocaust, a continuation of Hitler's extermination effort.
Italian or Polish catholics don't want their children to marry Irish catholics.
I don't know enough or have not heard any stories about Hindu, Sikh, or other practices to know what happens within those communities in such instances, but I am not generally hopeful.
Has anybody heard stories of atheists, skeptics, or non-believers banishing, disinheriting, or murdering their children because of whom they married? It would probably be the other way around.
When I was working at the Jewish philanthropy and heard these discussions about intermarriage, I asked a co-worker, who was from a orthodox-leaning conservative Jewish background, what he thought about intermarriage. I have treasured his answer ever since: "Love is hard enough to find. We shouldn't put other obstacles in the way."
Their faith and observance doesn't seem to bring peace to these people. If it does, it is a form of peace that I just cannot comprehend.
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It's standard among Orthodox Jews
In Israel, there's a concept very similar to being born-again - it's literally called "returning to the answer" - that involves a secular Jew becoming religiously practicing. The opposite process then acquired the neologism, "returning to the question"; because of the national and ethnic characteristics of Judaism, Jews who deconvert still idenitfy as Jewish, even if they're complete atheists. It's then standard among the practicing crowd to mourn any child who deconverts in the same way as if he died.
A hundred years ago in small
A hundred years ago in small towns in the Midwest (e.g., Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin) it was a scandal when a Swedish Lutheran maried a Norwegian Lutheran, or (heaven forfend!) even a German Lutheran. I don't think anyone ever got writtten out of the family for that, though. Now a Catholic, that could be a real problem. I still remember my father, a basically tolerant type on the whole (though of stout Norwegian Lutheran stock on all sides, including the woman he married, i.e., my mom) speaking sadly of a childhood friend of his: She married "a Catholic I-don't-care man," and her life has not gone very well.
Jews? Well, I didn't learn till second grade that the Jews had not accepted Christ back in the day. Might have had something to do with the fact that I pretty much stopped believing in all that religion stuff the next grade. And around third grade is where it belongs, if you ask me.
I don't have to guess
I'm atheist and my wife is Catholic.
I let my kids go to church but I don't go myself.
We've been married 15 years and no problems so far.
This arrangement has worked in my family for at least 3 generations:
My grandfather was atheist and my grandmother is Catholic.
My dad is atheist and my mom is Catholic.
My brother is atheist and his wife is Catholic.
My sister is Catholic though.
So apparently atheism is passed down through the Y chromosome. :)
Hey
You know, that Y chromosome remark got me thinking. I know WAY more male atheists than female atheists. The only like-minded women I know are through this blog. I know other atheist men in "real life", but no ladies. I'm not saying that I think atheism really is genetic or anything, I'm just wondering if our past societal structure has lead to more men questioning the status quo (which is to believe in some flavor of god) than women. Hopefully we are moving away from this type of educational and societal model. I know there have to be plenty of women atheists out there; I just haven't met any in the flesh.
Mandy U
Disappointed
I can honestly say I'd be disappointed if my (future) children decided to marry a believer. But dead to me? Certainly not. Violence...absoultely not!
OMFG! What a horrible story.
What a horrible mindset that places adherence to a set of rituals and dogmas above a person's own flesh and blood.
Fuck Islam, fuck Judaism and fuck any piece of shit religion that encourages this kind of blind mindless hatred.
- No More Mr. Nice Guy!
Thinking deeper
This particular man literally doesn't see his daughters as human beings. By my standards, considering I wouldn't do this even to a dog, he doesn't even see them as animals.
In his mind, his children are garbage to be disposed of.
Well, I know for certain
Well, I know for certain that I would not marry anyone but another atheist! Or at least agnostic. It gives me shivers to imagine arguing with my future significant other over whether the kids should go to Sunday school or not.
Bumped.
(I bumped this to the front page - it's something I've been meaning to write about, and Frank did a fine job.)
Jim Downey
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