Difference between revisions of "Atheism and romance"
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*[[Atheism and sexuality]] | *[[Atheism and sexuality]] | ||
*[[Desecularization#Sub-replacement levels of fertility of atheists. High fertility of the religious and immigration|Sub-replacement levels of fertility of atheists]] | *[[Desecularization#Sub-replacement levels of fertility of atheists. High fertility of the religious and immigration|Sub-replacement levels of fertility of atheists]] | ||
| + | *[[Richard Dawkins and love]] | ||
== Notes == | == Notes == | ||
Revision as of 19:11, September 20, 2016
Atheism lacks a significant tradition of romantic elements within its ideology.
The atheist Chris Mooney wrote in the Skeptical Inquirer about the Brights Movement: "From the start, the “brights” label label reinforced a longstanding stereotype. Atheists already have a terrible rap for being coldhearted rationalists who attend Mensa gatherings and dismiss religious believers as simple-minded fools."[1] See also: Atheism and social/interpersonal intelligence and Atheism and emotional intelligence and Atheism and intelligence
Contrastly, Judeo-Christianity has multiple references to romance. Examples of these romantic elements are: the Christian church is the bride of Christ; Song of Songs ; the book of Ruth which is a book of romance and redemption, and Saint Valentine's Day.
- See also: Atheism and love
Contents
British study finds atheists and scientists to be the least enthusiastic about Valentine's Day
An study done by the British website Freedating.co.uk reported about attitudes regarding Saint Valentine's Day:
| “ | Both Tory and Labour voters are about as unromantic as you can get, beaten only by atheists and scientists...
So says our latest survey, which looked our users' attitudes to Valentine's Day - 6,878 of them in all. We asked them to rate how important they thought the most romantic day of the year was, and combined their answer with anonymised data from their dating profiles. Our statistician crunched the numbers, and pulled out any links between the kind of information you find in a typical dating profile, and whether or not those people were enthusiastic fans of Valentine's Day. - Women overall are significantly more enthusiastic than men, nearly 10% so. - A strong interest in any political party, other than the Liberal Democrats, is linked to a decreasing interest in this international day of romance. - Whether or not men are religious is highly polarizing, with Christians and Catholics being amongst the most positive, and Atheists and Agnostics being amongst the most negative.[2] |
” |
Atheism and factors which impede romance
Gender imbalance: Significantly less atheist women
See also: Atheism and women
In addition, there is a large gender imbalance in the atheist population (see: Atheism and women). In 2016, Atheist Alliance International (AAI) conducted an annually reoccurring atheist census project and found: "At the time of writing, the Atheist Census Project recorded that on average worldwide 73.2% of respondents were male. The result is consistent with other research... As such, the focus of many scholarly papers has been on seeking to explain this persistent observation."[3]
Atheism complicating dating and lasting romantic relationships
See also: Atheism and interfaith marriages
An atheist who lives in a theistic society wrote at Atheist Nexus website forum:
| “ | I am looking to establish a dialog about people's thoughts on discrimination or complications that Atheism has caused in your love lives, or the love lives of people around you. I have heard many stories of people who have had trouble finding that special someone and even people who have had marriages fail over this issue. In my own life, since I have "come out" as an Atheist... I have experienced a lot of let downs in my love life because of people that cannot seem to accept my lack of belief.
One particular instance was the most frustrating because the woman I was dating was an Agnostic who didn't really have a solid stance one way or another on anything spiritual/religious... but she still just couldn't accept the fact that I didn't believe in some kind of higher power.... That isn't the only problem that I've had in this capcity... I've had Christians who refused outright to get involved with me because of their faith... and we all know that the majority of people out there are Christians and Muslims, both of which have strict rules on faith in this regard. I've had Pagans (two, in fact) get into arguments with me that were started by them and that lead to a falling out. It just seems to me that finding love as a non-believer is much more difficult than for the broader spectrum of people out there.[4] |
” |
Bible and interfaith marriages
The Bible teaches Christians not to marry a non-Christian (The Bible also teaches a believer to stay married to a non-believer if you are already married).[5]
Interfaith marriage statistics
Interfaith marriages often have greater marital friction and interfaith marriages historically have had higher rates of divorce.[6] According to a Washington Post article, "According to calculations based on the American Religious Identification Survey of 2001, people who had been in mixed-religion marriages were three times more likely to be divorced or separated than those who were in same-religion marriages." [7] Therefore, it would not be surprising if atheist/theist marriages also have increased marital friction and higher rates of divorce since these two worldviews are so different.
Atheism and marriage
See also: Atheism and marriage and Atheist marriages
Christian apologist Michael Caputo wrote:
| “ | Recently the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has published its mammoth study on Religion in America based on 35,000 interviews... According to the Pew Forum a whopping 37% of atheists never marry as opposed to 19% of the American population, 17% of Protestants and 17% of Catholics.[8] | ” |
Theodore Beale declared that according to the 2001 American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) "more than half of all atheists and agnostics don’t get married."[9]
Atheism, Christianity and romance novels: Amazon statistics
See also: Atheism and romance novels and Atheism statistics
According to a Nielson study commissioned by the Romance Writers of America, in 2014, women made up 82% of romance book buyers.[10]
As of May 20, 2016, as far as books, Amazon.com has 38,859 search results for the term "Christian romance".[11] As of May 20, 2016, as far as books, Amazon.com has 32 search results for the term "atheist romance".[12]
Christian satire about atheism and romantic love
See also: Christian marriage
The Christian apologist Ken Ammi, in order to demonstrate the moral and spiritual poverty of atheism, satirically gave this example of words that would be appropriate for an "Atheist Valentine's Day" card:
| “ | I am currently secreting manifestations of brain stuff towards you...
My cost-benefit analysis has concluded that you qualify as a mate, adequate to assist my survival and reproducing my genes - will you be my valentines.[13] |
” |
See also
Notes
- ↑ Not Too “Bright", Skeptical Enquirer, Chris Mooney, October 15, 2003
- ↑ The Politics of Valentine's Day: Survey reveals differing attitudes to Valentine's Day, based on political persuasion
- ↑ AAI Position Statement - Gender Balance
- ↑ Does Atheism Complicate Dating, Romance and Love?
- ↑ http://www.gotquestions.org/household-salvation.html
- ↑ http://blogs.chron.com/believeitornot/2010/06/interfaith_marriages_more_like_1.html
- ↑ Interfaith marriages are rising fast, but they're failing fast too, By Naomi Schaefer Riley Sunday, June 6, 2010
- ↑ http://creation.com/atheism
- ↑ http://creation.com/atheism
- ↑ Romance Reader Statistics
- ↑ Amazon - Christian romance
- ↑ Atheist romance - Amazon
- ↑ Atheist Saint Valentine's Day Cards by Ken Ammi, Examiner, October 29, 2010
