So the thing is…

Many people assume that since I am an atheist my wife is also an atheist. Nothing could be further from the truth. Now admittedly I am inconsiderate. I’m not too worried about stepping on people’s toes but that isn’t what makes a marriage work.

My wife is a Christian and I am clearly a very active atheist. I’ve gotten a lot of trolling from some people stating I am going to burn in the eternal pits of hell because of my blatant disregard for any spiritual authority. Sure. OK. I’ll bite.

That shit looks painful!

Wait a second…WTF!

The issue here is that it’s entirely unbiblical. The concept that people have of hell is misconstrued and the descriptions are vague in their holiest of holy books. I have yet to find a good description of hell aside from calling it miserable, insufferable, or a little warm (sic). However I did find this verse:

For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.

SWEET! So I’m pretty much set! Even if I’m fucking dead wrong I’ve still got an express ticket to heaven. Thanks babe! The only problem with this of course is it was again written by the Apostle Paul in the same chapter where he admonishes people for having ungodly sexual desires (meaning ANY at all).

Either way the whole book is still a load of revamped mythology that was settled 300 years after the purported death of their so-called savior. I understand there are descriptions of fire, brimstone, and hotness…but none of them come until the New Testament. Most of them are by the radical Apostle Paul. The most extreme are held within the Book of Revelation which is a complete rambling by any measure.

Step Back

I stated earlier about the misconceptions of hell. I highly doubt there are very many believers out there who understand the historical context and how we understand hell today. Current understanding comes from The Divine Comedy written by Dante Aligheiri. The number of believers I’ve met who actually understand that are far and few between. It must be wonderful to be a sheep…

My wife, thankfully, is not one of those sheep. I can accept that she believes what I consider to be nonsense as long as she completely understands what I believe (or in this case don’t). It works out somehow. We live by a level of mutual respect and I’m just thankful that she’s not an evangelical fundamentalist.

To those still hiding…

There are many atheists out there who are married to a spouse who is so encapsulated by their religious beliefs that the thought of “coming out” would destroy their marriage and probably bring irreparable harm to the mental state of their children….then again living with a fundamentalist would probably bring about the same results anyways…

So for those of you living in the closet for fear of alienating your spouse I salute you. I have the good fortune to be allowed to express myself even in disagreeing on the spiritual front with my wife. I hope that one day you too can be liberated from living a lie.

-Paul Loebe