What if Your Religious Friend Accepted Your Atheism?

March 4, 2010 By Guest Contributor 103 Comments

Reader Alise tosses out a hypothetical scenario that I don’t think is very far-fetched:

Let’s say you have a religious friend.

And the friend completely accept that you’re an atheist.

He doesn’t try to convert you or preach to you or debate you. He’s completely fine with your atheism.

What does that tell you about his faith? Would you have more or less respect for his belief system? Does that person simply not have very strong convictions? Would you feel somewhat disappointed in him if he didn’t try to convert you?

It seems like that is what we want, but if it happened, we would take him less seriously. Is that a contradiction?

Filed Under: General 103 Comments
  • Dhes of Yuggoth

    I’ve got a friend who seems reasonably respectful of my atheism, but I don’t debate it with her, either. I see little point in doing so, as I know it won’t convince her of anything, and her take on it is much the same. I don’t need her to agree with me about everything, though.

    Mom SEEMS okay with my atheism, but, then, there was another much more relevant area of my life quite recently where she’s actually had a very major issue with something and remained quiet about it until the worst possible moment when it had the potential do the most damage. I am extremely grateful to my very excellent neuropsychologist for spotting it, though, preventing the damage. So, there’s probably another shoe hanging in the air somewhere that may well drop at some point in time, and probably quite suddenly, out of the blue. After the last debacle, I think it would be merely prudent on my part to brace myself in case it should come down.