Along with your answer to the above, please state (i) where you spent your formative years (i.e., what city/state/country), (ii) how religious you are, and/or (iii) any other factor that you think plays into why you think the way you do. Thanks!
Yes.
Grew up mainly in the midwest, but on the southern end of it (Oklahoma, Kansas, Kentucky). I am not very religious, and never really was. Even as a young child, I would spend several weeks at a time in the summer with my dad's side of the family, a very religious group (Appalachian mountain Church of God, women in dresses, no shirts sleeves for anyone, no TV, they've lightened up a little over the years since they'll use the internet to argue with me on Facebook about whether or not Obama is the anti-Christ), but it never took. And the older I got the more I felt disenchanted, and even somewhat hostile towards religion.
And when we would visit my mom's mom, and we'd go to her local Church of Christ, well, there's a pack of hypocritical, country-clubbing-for-Christ pack of townies for you. While they weren't as strict on things like TV and dresses, I think I like the CoG's better because at least they were sincere.
The only thing coming close to a religion for me growing up, something I honestly believed in, was Star Trek. Yeah, I've done the uniform, I have the DVD's, books, toys, etc. But that utopian vision was just something I always wanted to a part of.
I guess having been a sci-fi fan (nut?) for so long allows me to accept things out of the ordinary. I don't have a moral issue with living together before marriage, my wife and I did it, though for us didn't really feel like a "test run" at the time, it just seemed a natural evolution of our relationship. It certainly upset my parents, but by the time my younger brother got to that phase, they now let his girlfriend stay the night (he moved back home after the house he was renting was damaged in a storm, and they got him back into college, he's in his 20's).
Looking over all the responses here, the comments by Praxius really sum up my feelings as well, especially this bit:
Praxius said:
I hold more respect for myself, my family and my future then to just leave my life up for chance with a wife I never took the time to fully know about before I made a decision.
There are just so many little things that can come up from living together that even years and years of dating won't reveal. And while I still learn things about my wife now after 13 years of marriage (with about 2 or 3 years of co-habitating before that), at this point they're not dealbreakers things, but just more facets of another human being that I can love and appreciate regardless.
