About boyfriend visiting a quaker house?

It's actually not critical but truthful. You are absolute in your belief in no god but he isn't. But I do think he's wrong, anyone can enter even if it's just for a look at the architecture

You could have children with another confirmed atheist and those very children develop a faith when they are older. What are you going to do? Disown them? You don't come across as being very tolerant of people who adhere to a faith. Why does it bother you so much? You could tell your children repeatedly that faith is stupid/ ignorant/ pointless etc etc but they might still become Christians, Muslims, Buddists etc. I've been a Christian since my 20's, my beloved late Dad was an atheist and we had some interesting chats but our love and respect for each other never faltered.

Would you ever consider doing a Quaker AMA, Brambles?

I’ve always been fascinated, since being a child. I think there used to be a few meeting houses in the rural villages we used to go on holiday to and the buildings initially interested me, along with Quaker Oats, which I used to eat.

"that isnt my belief though I respect others."
But you don't respect others because you're acting nuts about your boyfriend visiting somewhere connected to a religion. You actually sound really judgemental and close minded.
What will you do if you raise children not to believe in god and they go find religion? What if your partner down the line decides to find religion?
I'm not religious at all but I was raised in a very religious family but I definitely expose my children to other religions so they are open minded and aware of other beliefs

Did he give you the impression he is going to marry you and have kids? If not, let him be!

My goodness, that's a bit severe isn't it?

I am not religious, and tend to think that religions are divisive and usually male dominated, so I am not keen on them.any of them.

However, I don't think there is anything terrible about visiting religious buildings and admiring religious music. It is also up to the individual to decide what they believe or don't believe in. I wouldn't want a partner preaching to me and expecting me to abide by their religious values, especially if they did not accord with my own, but people should be allowed to think what they want to think and believe what they want to believe.

As for the Quakers, that is about the only religious group I have some admiration for. They have in the past fearlessly campaigned for unpopular causes, such as the abolition of slavery and prison reform and they do not have a hierarchical structure, as most other religions do.

If you were a man expecting a woman to adhere to all your beliefs and values, I am sure many people would automatically think that was unacceptable.

I’m a staunch atheist but visit religious buildings regularly and am interested in learning about different religions. This wouldn’t bother me in the slightest.

Support him on his journey, like he must support you on yours. Do you want him to choose between you and this other thing that moves him?

I’d suggest he runs a mile from you tbh

Faith is personal. You can't dictate whethet or not your future children will have faith or not. That's their choice, not yours.

Agnostics can attend any church. So can atheists.

I think you are overthinking

my parents brought me up with no faith. As a kid I went to church with school and we went to the occasional xmas mass with family. I went through a phase of exploring religion but realised I just don’t have faith.

I have brought my kids up in the same way and they too have gone through phases where they wanted to explore religion but now as teenagers they both acknowledge they don’t have faith

however, if they did then I would support them in what they wanted to do - as individuals it is up to them and if they genuinely felt a faith then so be it.

He's not allowed to make a joke/sarcy comment? You say you respect others with faith, is that everyone except him?

Our souls are what give us our unique human dignity. They are the essence of our humanity, without which and when ignored leads to grave evil. God is love. And science is a wonderful tool - but its only instrumental. Science can build a bomb, but it can't tell us if/when/where we should use a bomb. Science cannot provide those answers, we have tried to use science for these purposes to develop ethical frameworks but it has only produced, broadly speaking two systems which are often at odds with one another. And we tend to select whichever best justifies what our intuitive moral senses tell us.

TLDR: we need God, we are heading for disaster without him. Although the metaphysics might be too much for our disenchanted brains to apprehend.

@Celia24 thanks for coming back. Can you please clarify if you are the poster on another thread as asked by @PeppyAquaPoet ? Are you the one with a partner who belittles you, is a bully? Because that changes a lot of things, a lot of the advice that most of us would give

I think there's several conversations going on now, plus of course there's bound to be the odd interjection from someone who hasn't RTFT or even all of your posts.

Love is an emotion, a function of our brain, it is not immaterial we can describe it we know it releases endorphins and dilates the pupils, all material, tangible things nothing like the soul concept. But if the soul is like an emotion then as the brain dies with us so does the soul.

No, not at all. I don't have a faith. But we've some longstanding friends of the family who are Quakers and I interface with a Quaker meeting house in a professional capacity. They appear to me to be a very easy-going, open-minded group of people; tolerant, reflective and with a strong commitment to working for good in their communities. They also genuinely seem to relish silence and worship as tending a quiet, personal relationship with God. I'm from a meditative non-dualist tradition so this resonates with me, I suppose.

Same.

I think many people can distinguish between admiration of different parts of religions and not wanting to follow them.

Well if you want to be very literal about that which is “immaterial” then Love fits your definition, does that mean that it does not exist? How does one evidence the existence of love? We just know it does, the existence of love is just the tacit knowledge of humanity. It’s an abstract concept, difficult or impossible to exhaustively define, but widely understood and accepted nonetheless, it certainly cannot be proven. I think the concept of a Soul would tick the same boxes really.

No, many are but equally many aren't. I attend Meeting, I'm agnostic as are others.

I almost think the existence of God or not is irrelevant. Either God exists or Man makes God over and over again because of an intrinsic human need to make sense of the world and have some connection, just in order to survive. The belonging to a group ( and a group not restricted by class, money or race) doing good for others, having a place to sit and reflect and having someone to unburden our problems on is invaluable for human mental health, and it's easily contained in one package, at its best. At its worst, of course, they do terrible things, but it's naive to think no wars would occur without religion. Religion is basically tribalism, as are wars. They would occur eith or without religion.

They're Christians

I've explored, enjoyed and admired Catholic and Protestant churches, Stonehenge and Avebury, synagogues and mosques, including one that was built originally as a church in Istanbul. Love the architecture, atmosphere, history, artifacts, culture.

I've never caught religion, either.

What are you afraid of?