Now then...

...So when last I posted, I was feeling unable to follow Orthodoxy for various reasons and I hadn't been to church in months.

Mostly it was the being alone part. Well, things have gotten complicated.

I don't know what kind of people you are, but some Orthodox would suck in a breath or bulge their eyes at me. Even though I can't see it, if that's what you're prone to, try to suppress the reflex.

I've got a girlfriend, but she's an Atheist.

But wait, there's more!

Her logic is that if you were going to be religious, you would have to be completely Orthodox, because either that holy book you believe in is true, or it isn't. And if it is, you are never ever allowed to change it just because you want to, like the Catholics and Protestants do.

But of course, she doesn't believe it. Didn't stop me from falling for her, but she doesn't.

So...if you're a long time reader of this blog, then you know that this has happened before. My first Girlfriend, Megan, was also an atheist. But she believed that religion was "A delusion people use because they're afraid of death."

So...in the end that one probably wouldn't have worked out anyway.

Lindsey, by contrast, simply disagrees with the conclusion that there is a God, but admits that it is just her opinion. Furthermore, she pointed out that if you're really an Atheist, death is nothing to be afraid of. But if you're religious, then death should scare you.

Wow! Cool eh? Consistent, well thought out logic.

If only the church would let me marry her.

When last I was still going to church it made me depressed. I would see people with their families. They had spouses and children, brothers and sisters...But not me. I was there all alone with nobody to go home to to share the struggle of the faith.
And because I wasn't married before I joined the church, I didn't even have a non-Orthodox wife for a companion. On top of which I lived alone for three years.

My sanity suffered somewhat from this.

So finally, along comes this girl and asks me out.

And the tragic irony is this: Her position on faith is infinitely more defensible than that of a Catholic girl that the Church would actually let me marry.


Anyway, that's where things are.

-Alexei