Well, my main advice would be, don't date a raving Christian because it wouldn't work out. I think most people are comfortable with meditation these days, it seems to be pretty popular with a large segment of the population.

I did meditation for about two years myself and I believe that I benefited from it. Just couldn't fit in with the other people doing the practice because I am philisophically minded and do question things.

Had a girlfriend that was always going on about "energy" and astrology and things like that. It boiled down to her saying that I just think about sex because I'm a scorpio, her being an aries was an excuse for her control freakery, bad temper and obnoxiousness and constant nagging about my energy being wrong because my place is a bit untidy and the furniture wasn't aranged the way that she liked.

True, there's more acceptance than there used to be about such things. I like to light a bit of incense though and even if I keep my small section or area scent free afterwards I still got yelled at for lighting stinky stuff. I personally think that incense is a lot better than the potpourri stuff that gets sprayed or plugged into walls...ugh.

I honestly wouldn't mind if they were Christian if they didn't try to convert me. Before my first move away from GA I had a friend that was very strict about her religion - we got along well and had many interesting conversations. But it always seemed at certain points that she'd push a little too hard to get me to follow her belief and in one such instance she was explaining that those that don't follow her religion won't be in Heaven with her after life on this earth ends. I think that's a sad view point to believe that anyone you are friends with will not be seen again in the afterlife just because you walk different paths.

I better understand now why she pressed so hard at times, but it's just not what I believe in personally. It's like a separation anxiety imposed by the religion itself from how she explained her view, and it made me pause for a long while to consider how I'd feel if this was all I knew about keeping those I loved and cared about close to me now and in the hereafter...and it hurts. I'm not going to follow what I don't believe in, but I thank her for that experience to understand the different view point - I can't say I would act differently if that was my understanding of the world and beyond in regards to those I love and care about...it made me feel good on a level to know that she valued our friendship then that much to want to make sure I was there later on in life beyond.

Not all christians are the same or even believe the same things. My mother is a commited christian and sure, she would like me to go to church and believe in that stuff but she doesn't think that I'm going to hell and she even has faith that our old dog is in heaven now.

The philosopher Kierkegaard was a christian but he really didn't care much for organised religion and he said that it's better to be a pagan worshipping an idol if that's what he calls your "subjective truth" than an insincere inauthentic christian.

Many christians today are quite prepared to accept that not everything in the Bible is literally true. A friend of my family's was a minister and she takes that position. She recently officiated at my niece's naming ceremony and they didn't call it a christening because it wasn't all about that and people read poems and the ceremony was more Celtic than christian.

In this country evangelical christians are a tiny minority and they mostly stick to their own kind, when they aren't out trying to convert heathens. I've got an uncle that's a born again christian and he thinks more of the people in his little clique than he does about us.

I'm not religious but I was brought up as a protestant. I don't mind there being a protestant state religion because protestants hold that faith is a personal matter and I don't want somebody in Rome telling me what to do. It's different in America and frankly, we think that it's like you lot are still living in the middle ages because you are arguing about things that were settled over here centuries ago.