What is the church's opinion on dating an atheist or agnostic?

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What I would like to add:
  • one of the biggest fears coming up while dating a non-believer is in which way he or she would be supportable in keeping the faith alive in marriage. This is also not a guarantee in a marriage between two catholics, as we see here on CAF so often. People get married, one gets closer to god, one gets farer away years after the wedding or when troubles or difficulties come. The difference between “fully” catholic marriages and mixed marriages are now also the social circles the couple lives in. A strongly catholic social circle (which is of course more often available around non-mixd catholic marriages) will help to stabilize the couple when it´s gonna be difficult. A mixed environment could offer counsel contrary to the beliefs of the catholic partner (when dealing with adultery, NFP, education for example).
    My idea on this theme is being extremely careful on the social environment of the spouses, especially the non-catholic spouse. Are the closest friends people with values and good influence, even if not necessary christian? How do they (spouse and friends) deal with responsibility in general?
    My husband left his former friend circle after they had a bad influence on our relation ship. It was an important sign for me, and it was also important that some people I trust (two profs at my university, one is a catholic priest) were highly content and happy for us when we got engaged.
    So, of course I don´t want to encourage anyone to make a decision based on friend´s ideas and judges, but it´s a wise thing to keep an eye on them.
 
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OH dear, there are tons of black men who are practicing Catholics.
And white men marry black women all the time.
These are excuses.

A woman who is beautiful on the inside attracts men of every race.
 
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Not in my area. In general, it does bother me that black women are considered less desirable. Many black women feel this way. I recently watched a TV show that shed light on that topic. Black movies sometimes mention that issue. Clearly it is an issue for some. Don’t name women like Beyonce,Halle Berry, etc because they are lighter skinned. You can tell me all you want there is not racism or colorism when it comes to dating, walk a mile in an average dark skinned black woman’s shoes. Please don’t dismiss or invalidate my experience. Most interracial couples with a black partner, most of time the husband is the black one not the wife.
 
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You really don’t get what I’m saying, so I’ll leave the thread.
but know this: No one is talking about Beyonce, only you.
I am Hispanic. Try being Hispanic in a world that hates immigrants.
Whatever.
Love doesn’t see color.
That’s a fact.
 
I am sorry if I missed the point and went on to another rant. Sorry.
 
This may sound random, but I have a point so bear with me. How concerned are you about having a stroke? How about diabetes?
 
No. I eat healthily. Are you going to point out that I worry too much or something? Or something about the chances? This making me a little nervous. Don’t know what you’ll respond.
 
I’m a 27 year old guy who goes to mass. But you’re right, there aren’t many men or women our age who go to mass
 
Jump4Joy said:
No. I eat healthily. Are you going to point out that I worry too much or something? Or something about the chances? This making me a little nervous. Don’t know what you’ll respond.
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That you’re putting WAY too much energy into what stats say. Because black women have twice the chance of having a stroke than white women. Black women are more likely than any other people to get diabetes. As opened with you feel that you’re not at risk. Why? You’re doing something about it so you feel as if that stat doesn’t apply to you. Yet stats show that while being healthy decreases overall health, the risk % remains. This means that no matter how healthy a black woman is she’s always at a greater risk than a healthy white woman.

The fact that it’s harder for a black person to find a spouse, the fact that there is less Catholic young adults shouldn’t cause you such duress you start thinking that you are unable to fathom finding the person you seek.

You only need one person of the billions on Earth.
 
I think I’m attractive as a woman. If someone is so colorstruck maybe they can find some one within the race they prefer. This is an unpopular opinion but I would date an agnostic
 
As an atheist, as the religious call me, I am perfectly fine being culturally religious without needing the supernatural baggage. One of my best friends is a mexican atheist who married a white southern racist debutante catholic. They get along fine because their political ideologies line up. Just that he uses his own world view to come to the same conclusions that she uses her religious world view for. Different paths to the same conclusion are irrelevant as long as you both agree on how to change the world. If you are politically opposed, then it may not work. I have been attending my local church for the past 4 years to sing in their choir for music lessons and no one knows I’m an atheist since they just never asked. My rule for dating religious is that they must defend me to their peers regardless if I am there or not to defend myself. If you can not put bigotry in its place regardless if it is your church peers, pastor, or parents, then you are too much of a coward to keep my interest. Just as if my parents would pull me aside and ask “is she a XXX religion?” I’d say, “No, is this going to be a problem? Because we can leave now if you don’t change your tone.”
 
Her level of racism is benign to him I guess. Or maybe her actions has shown him that she just continues the racist jokes of her parents, but does not actually act racist to people of color when she is not around her parents. We’re all guilty of keeping two sets of books, so I guess he’s fine with hers.
 
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My mom used to tell me my standards were too high. She meant well. My Protestant husband ended up being the absolute best man I have met even to this day, 15 1/2 years later. Keep your standards right up there.

I met him online when I was 21 (I don’t think there were Catholic sites back then). My profile included a line about loving God and how you must too. THREE young men responded to me, one after the other, some of them I think listed as Catholic, each of them specifically saying they liked what they read/saw but could I let go of the God thing? I said No. The fourth young man said, “I like what you said about God. I love him too.” He’s now my husband.

We dated long distance for the first 9 months. (Widening your geographic area to include the nearest major city might help.) We’ve been married 14 years. It can work. It’s very, very hard - imagine - you’re a cradle Catholic, whether you’ve looked hard at anything or not you’re convinced at least of the Real Presence, convinced completely, right down to your bones, and you live with a man, dearer to you than anything in the world, who denies it. That is HARD. It brought me to tears many, many times over the years. We even took a journey into birth control partly because he refused to baptize infants. [To the people who like to poke and argue: There was all kinds of messed up stuff in there, and we’re past that time, so please don’t jump on me!] So it’s doable, but it’s very hard. And marriage is already hard. But it can be done.

He told me on Divine Mercy Sunday that he’s converting. (Baptism as a sacrament was the first thing he confessed, last summer. Eucharist was next, this past Lent.) It wasn’t something either of us planned from the start. I even took a foray into Protestantism for a while. He’s on the phone telling his parents right now. I haven’t quite absorbed it yet. I’m still feeling kind of blank.

Just one thing though, I want to agree with the people who are saying that fear and anxiety are not good considerations upon which to make decisions. Have you ever asked your Angel to take those things from you? You’ll be more comfortable and in a position to make better choices.
 
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