It really isn't very hard to function in a society that consists of a lot of people who hold opinions you think are wrong.

Well, in general I would say this is true, and one of those cognitive dissonances you just live with. But, like, doesn't "This person has no morals (because she isn't religious)" would be kind of a dealbreaker, wouldn't it? I mean a whole nother order of magnitude of "you think it's wrong".

Like, I am a stone cold Steve Austin atheist, but there is no Atheist's Handbook that disallows me from consorting among the godded. I mean, even if there were, I would be skeptical of it, because, you know.

like, doesn't "This person has no morals (because she isn't religious)" would be kind of a dealbreaker, wouldn't it?

My most devout Christian friend operated on the following premise: "ita, you're going to hell. But that's your choice, and I'm not going to try and talk you out of it. Want to do lunch?"

Worked well for the both of us. Her best friend was Jewish, and they never had faith-based problems either.

But, like, doesn't "This person has no morals (because she isn't religious)" would be kind of a dealbreaker, wouldn't it?

I don't think all Christians or all religous people think that atheists or non believers of their particular religon are without morals.

It seems to be a very exterimist view that only those who know God are good people.

Edited to clarify: I think only people who are religous extremists hold the view that people who don't believe in God are without morals.

But, like, doesn't "This person has no morals (because she isn't religious)" would be kind of a dealbreaker, wouldn't it? I mean a whole nother order of magnitude of "you think it's wrong".

This is the kind of person who can't be friends with non-believers. Most of us, hopefully, live our lives Not Judging (lest we be judged), Loving Our Neighbor as Ourselves, and just trying to be good examples of Christ on Earth. (Not saying I/we do a good job of it, but this, hopefully, is the aim).

Will you be keeping in touch with him, sara?

Oh yeah.

I'm just going to miss the day to day. Even when he annoyed me, he was good company. It's not as if he's falling off the planet, I just HATE CHANGE. Especially when it moves fun people farther from me.

I have the same friendship with my fundamentalist good friend. We compare child rearing beliefs, relationships with friends and families, our husbands. We occasionaly talk about religion but usually at my behest. And I watch my mouth and don't swear with her.

Edited to clarify: I think only people who are religous extremists hold the view that people who don't believe in God are without morals.

These are the people I'm talking about. Also George Bush Senior, because he said that very thing (though I doubt he really believes it), and don't think I don't have the Whitest Voodoo Doll Evar with his name on it.

My brother's first long-term serious girlfriend was a Biblical literalist. Sweet, and kind, and a vegetarian hippie Oregonian whose best friend was a non-churchgoing gay hairdresser. She had pierced her own navel and loved pretty clothes (but thought she was too ugly to wear them) and adored my brother.

And the FAC she belonged to, and all her family, made her afraid to open a book or see a movie because people who made up stories were trying to set themselves up against God as co-creators, and they badgered her for the entire five months she was seeing my brother, and made her feel like shit, and finally she just lost whatever little spark of self and rebellion she'd had, and on Christmas Day she called my brother and broke up with him because she was convinced she'd go to hell if she didn't. It just wrecked him, and I'm still, years later, and even with him happily married to a delightful woman, fairly pissed at her and at her FAC -- and sometimes I worry about her and how much further she's diminished since then. The whole episode just makes my gut curl up.

Most of us, hopefully, live our lives Not Judging (lest we be judged), Loving Our Neighbor as Ourselves, and just trying to be good examples of Christ on Earth. (Not saying I/we do a good job of it, but this, hopefully, is the aim).

Totally. TOTALLY.

But it is not that hard for people who are most interested in only interacting with people who believe what they do to do so. On any "side." I know people who go to a liberal church, work for liberal causes, live in liberal neighborhoods, only have liberal friends. At a church I went to once, they had a residence for single church members, and there was lots of talk about this new member working for a Christian law firm, etc. It's just not that hard to Stick To Your Own Kind.

A petty, practical-joke-playing God is a good thing?

This is something that has always bothered me about Biblical literalism. The God of the old testament is petty, childish, arbitrary, and cruel. I doubt very much if such a God exists. It seems more likely that these characteristics reflect the fears and projections of an early civilization. But if such a God does exist, wouldn't the moral choice of every person be to fight against his power, no matter how hopeless such a fight would be?