a date with an atheist

A Saturday at the office --

I was anxious to hear how my co-worker Mary's date went last night. She now and then meets guys who have been "matched" to her through an online dating site, and some of her stories about her "dates" are entertaining, often amusing. She had told me ahead of time she'd be meeting this new guy, and when I had asked her what she knew about this latest dude, she said "He's an atheist." That label seemed to make Mary, a recovering Catholic and spiritually undefined, a little apprehensive. Or maybe it just seemed odd that this was information he was volunteering before they even met.

So I asked her how it went, and she said it went okay! "He's a really nice guy." Like she was expecting a self-described atheist to be not nice? I've known plenty of nice atheists and have known plenty of non-atheists who are definitely NOT nice. So go for it, Mary. Maybe you can convince him to convert to whatever it is you are, if you ever figure that out. :-)