I hadn't seen the term "spiritual but not religious" since I quit computer dating going on two years ago, having found the perfect woman for me on the Internet. While I was cyber-dating, it was featured on nearly every profile I clicked on. Perhaps many women just don't want to admit that they are out-and-out atheists or merry agnostics, at least in public, but the "S but not R" box was the one most of them chose. The second most common was "Christian," the third "Catholic." The rarest were girls who picked a specific Protestant denomination, like "Presbyterian."
Didn't matter to me. I never contacted any women who proclaimed a religious affiliation, no matter how attractive they looked in their pictures, even if in those pictures they were wearing barely more than a crucifix. You're going to find enough things to argue about with someone you are dating eventually anyway—why start with a fundamental disagreement?
What about Spiritual but not Religious guys, you ask? I don't know any. I wasn't looking for one. I'm not sure they exist. There are religious guys, even really spiritual ones, like the Dalai Lama and St. Francis, but spiritual guys who don't already have a religion tend to start their own.
But you Spiritual but not Religious girls have been put on notice. You have acquired an intellectual opponent. Alan Miller at CNN is ticked off at all of you. He proclaims your beliefs "wishy-washy," and "a cop out."
I assure you I never judged you Spiritual ladies so harshly. To me, when you clicked the "spiritual but not religious" selection on the drop down menu, that meant you like burning candles. And maybe doing yoga. That was no deal-breaker as far as I was concerned, as long as you didn't light the candles during televised sporting events that I had money on, or make me do the yoga.
Beaches and sunsets always gave you numinous feelings. I had no problem with that, either. I never went to the beach expecting to see something evolving anyway. That you thought we ought to have one vegetarian meal a week was okay by me, too, as long as it was pizza.
When you actually mentioned your God, He seemed pretty agreeable. He wasn't some hirsute Smiter who demanded that you shun homosexuals or pulled pork sandwiches. He was more like the vague Higher Power that alcoholics have, only He was okay with your drinking.
I especially liked that.
Alan is not so easy to please. He demands that girls you pick an allegiance to any book of hoary legends and follow the worship instructions therein, or else admit you are walking on a beach that consists of mere rocks and sand rotating away from the light of the nearest star in an unfeeling universe only accidentally and temporarily favorable to your existence. If you refuse, he has nothing but sneers for your intellectual dishonesty.
I hope his friends chip together and buy him an "I Never Want to Have Sex" bumper sticker, because he needs one.
But maybe I underestimate Alan; maybe he has found a wonderful partner who understands and respects his need to detest the ninety percent of humanity who just bumble along with only a nodding acquaintance with either religious or rational absolutes, and just hope everything comes out okay in the end.
After all, I have, and only after we had been together for some time did I discover that her religious beliefs consist of an overlying agnosticism intertwined with occasional, deeply felt moments of Orthodox Judaism.
Thank God that wasn't on the drop-down menu.
Didn't matter to me. I never contacted any women who proclaimed a religious affiliation, no matter how attractive they looked in their pictures, even if in those pictures they were wearing barely more than a crucifix. You're going to find enough things to argue about with someone you are dating eventually anyway—why start with a fundamental disagreement?
What about Spiritual but not Religious guys, you ask? I don't know any. I wasn't looking for one. I'm not sure they exist. There are religious guys, even really spiritual ones, like the Dalai Lama and St. Francis, but spiritual guys who don't already have a religion tend to start their own.
But you Spiritual but not Religious girls have been put on notice. You have acquired an intellectual opponent. Alan Miller at CNN is ticked off at all of you. He proclaims your beliefs "wishy-washy," and "a cop out."
I assure you I never judged you Spiritual ladies so harshly. To me, when you clicked the "spiritual but not religious" selection on the drop down menu, that meant you like burning candles. And maybe doing yoga. That was no deal-breaker as far as I was concerned, as long as you didn't light the candles during televised sporting events that I had money on, or make me do the yoga.
Beaches and sunsets always gave you numinous feelings. I had no problem with that, either. I never went to the beach expecting to see something evolving anyway. That you thought we ought to have one vegetarian meal a week was okay by me, too, as long as it was pizza.
When you actually mentioned your God, He seemed pretty agreeable. He wasn't some hirsute Smiter who demanded that you shun homosexuals or pulled pork sandwiches. He was more like the vague Higher Power that alcoholics have, only He was okay with your drinking.
I especially liked that.
Alan is not so easy to please. He demands that girls you pick an allegiance to any book of hoary legends and follow the worship instructions therein, or else admit you are walking on a beach that consists of mere rocks and sand rotating away from the light of the nearest star in an unfeeling universe only accidentally and temporarily favorable to your existence. If you refuse, he has nothing but sneers for your intellectual dishonesty.
I hope his friends chip together and buy him an "I Never Want to Have Sex" bumper sticker, because he needs one.
But maybe I underestimate Alan; maybe he has found a wonderful partner who understands and respects his need to detest the ninety percent of humanity who just bumble along with only a nodding acquaintance with either religious or rational absolutes, and just hope everything comes out okay in the end.
After all, I have, and only after we had been together for some time did I discover that her religious beliefs consist of an overlying agnosticism intertwined with occasional, deeply felt moments of Orthodox Judaism.
Thank God that wasn't on the drop-down menu.
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