U.S. Divorce Rates…Holy Matrimony?
U.S. Divorce rates among denominations:
Donald Hughes, author of The Divorce Reality, said:
“In the churches, people have a superstitious view that Christianity will keep them from divorce, but they are subject to the same problems as everyone else, and they include a lack of relationship skills. …Just being born again is not a rabbit’s foot.”
Hughes claim that 90% of divorces among born-again couples occur after they have been “saved.”
U.S. Divorce rates among religions:
Jews 30%
Born-again Christians 27%
Other Christians 24%
Atheists, Agnostics 21%
Ron Barrier, Spokesperson for American Atheists remarked on these findings with some rather caustic comments against organized religion. He said:
“These findings confirm what I have been saying these last five years. Since Atheist ethics are of a higher caliber than religious morals, it stands to reason that our families would be dedicated more to each other than to some invisible monitor in the sky. With Atheism, women and men are equally responsible for a healthy marriage. There is no room in Atheist ethics for the type of ’submissive’ nonsense preached by Baptists and other Christian and/or Jewish groups. Atheists reject, and rightly so, the primitive patriarchal attitudes so prevalent in many religions with respect to marriage.” 2
StopTheReligiousRight.org had some scathing comments as well:
“We hear an awful lot from conservatives in the Bible Belt and on the TV about how we all should be living. Certainly a culture that teaches the conservative religious values of the Christian right must have clean living written all over it. And lots of ripe fruit from their morally superior lives abounding.”
“It doesn’t. Far from it. People that talk the loudest may be the ones walking the slowest. Joining its history of Biblically correct bigotry and discrimination, it is an area with the highest divorce, murder, STD/HIV/AIDS, teen pregnancy, single parent homes, infant mortality, and obesity rates in the nation. As a region, the Bible Belt has the poorest health care systems and the lowest rates of high school graduation.” 12
References:
http://www.adherents.com/largecom/baptist_divorce.html
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_dira.htm
EMAIL SUBSCRIPTION
What I really want to know is what the marriage rates are. Are atheists as likely to express their committment to each other through marriage (when possible) as Christians?
I also personally think there’s more to divorce than the failure of religion. Nowhere in this culture are we taught to compromise or make concessions at all anymore.
That would be interesting to find out. I doubt that atheist are less likely to get married if it is legal.
I think the point of this post is more in line with the fact that no one is any better at marriage then anyone else. With the claims made by religion you would think that their divorce rates would be lower but in some cases are a good ways up there. The reasons for those divorces probably range from minor to major but until you know them it is hard to say what fault you can lay on religion.
i think i’ll remain single for now lol….plus the government wont allow me to marry
I suspect atheists are, on average, older when they marry compared to very religious people who may experience pressure to marry early. More mature people know themselves better and may be better able to adjust to married life.
Religious folk tend to marry young because the really want to f#ck but can’t without getting married. Turns out that’s not the best reason to get married, nor the best age, and thus the higher divorce rates.
Or they get knocked up because they’re fed lies about condoms by their elders; thinking condoms aren’t very effective and being told birth control is amoral at best (it’s designed to make sure a fertilized egg wont implant! You’re killing a baby! We need that baby to kill terrorists!) and then marry their baby-daddy. Another recipe for a tragically short marriage.
I don’t plan on getting married. I don’t need a piece of paper to call someone “my wife”.
Less if what that paper actually says is “if she gets tired of you, she gets the kids, the car, the house and all your money”.
Even though I’m not entirely safe of that.
Would it be foul play to bring up Warren Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints … aka the Polygamist cult? HE believes in marriage! Okay, sure, to more than one wife at a time, but still… That’s a bit left of the bible belt, I suppose. I may have recommended this other site before, but it’s apt again: fuckthesouth.com. They do mention the marriage issue, gay or otherwise.
Personally, I’m almost forty, but I’d get married if the right girl came along. Gotta grow up sometime, right? Why is it that it’s never the girl that YOU want who’s attracted to you?
Marriage is difficult under the best of circumstances and adding any outside pressure can only make things worse.
Lack of commitment and the lack of respect are marriage killers.
Intense church activities probably killed quite a number of marriages.
I hardly think a 3 to 9% gap in the average divorce rate is anything to brag about or feel superior over! Especially to the degree of blather about superior morals and ethics….blah blah blah…….. I would be curious to know the statistics of atheists living together versus actually committing themselves to marriage….could it be that there are less of them committing to marriage and thus the lower rate of divorce. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free???
You’ve missed the point. Christians generally “brag” and claim superiority when it comes to the marriage commitment. But as the numbers show, they divorce at higher, if only slightly, rates. Even if the numbers were equal, the article would keep it’s meaning.
Judging from your comment, I think that Atheists in general have a hard time accepting that there are Christians out there that are the real deal…..and they most certainly can’t discern a true believer from a purely religious person…….most people who claim to be Christian don’t have the first clue about what it means to walk the walk…..they are religious and highly hypocritical, putting on airs of superiority and there is no evidence of the love of God in their hearts or actions…..a true believer doesn’t brag about how their faith makes them better than others, they are too busy pursing new levels of relationship with the Living God, trying to bring positive change into the lives of others…..change that does not include demeaning or trying to “win converts”, talking down to people or telling others how much there is wrong with their lives.
I am so sick and tired of the rantings of people (yes – mostly Atheist people) who talk about a people group they claim to understand but have no true knowledge of or experience with. The Christians you have met are a farce…..they are wearing a mask and have no real knowledge or experience to speak from. They have never felt the presence of God or heard His voice, and they are not any kind of authority on God.
So when you say “Christians generally brag” you need to know that those people hold a title they are not deserving of, and it is only a title. If they truely were Christians, your experience with them would be much different. Just because someone claims a name for themselves doesn’t mean anything, and it is really unfortunate for those people who have been transformed by the living God, because they have to take the fall for all the posers giving the faith a bad name:(
So there is no true Scotsman. I’ve been fooled this whole time.
Last time I checked the only parameter for being a christian was believing in Jesus the Christ.
Those atheists you met are not the real Atheists. Real Atheists don’t think that way. ;-p
And we’re so glad that we’ve finally met a Christian who doesn’t brag about herself, how she is not a hypocrite, how she is one of those rare few who are true Christians etc, etc.
Don’t you love it when they use the “true Christian” excuse?
That’s funny, all of the “Atheists” I have talked to have expressed a great deal of disdain and sarcasm towards people of faith (including this blog) talking down to them (to those “true Christians”).
It’s always the same stuff with you guys though (…we’re so glad we finally met a Christian who doesn’t brag about herself, how she is not a hypocrite, how she is one of those rare few who are true Christians etc etc”) dripping with sarcasm and making it so obvious how stupid you think it all is……..I sometimes wonder why I bother to engage in conversation with people who are obviously not capable of respecting someone’s opinion when it is so different from their own:)
I have yet to meet an Atheist who can have a respectful conversation with anyone who doesn’t share their same narrow point of view without insulting me or mocking my beliefs (and yes this includes my friends that I can still be friends with when the conversation is over) You don’t know anything about me or my faith. Your experience with RELIGIOUS people has jaded you, and I must say, it’s not flattering!!! That is about all I have to say about this!!
You are correct. I don not respect Christianity or Islam, the two religions that destroyed, tortured and killed over and over….in the name of God.
You don’t know me either, but yet you judge. I don’t care if you see me as flattering or not. It makes no difference to me.
In the words of Bill Maher, “I can’t respect anyone who believes in a talking snake.”
If you believe, you are a Christian…
Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. — John 3:16
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life — John 3:36
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. — Acts 16:31
But Christ told Nicodemus….
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. — John 3:3 (in other words, live a holy life)
As a person reared by Christian nutjobs, I know all too well the teachings inside the Bible. That’s one of the reasons I am an atheist.
Another thing….to discern is the same as being deluded by the Jewish fairy tale story.
If you don’t like atheists, why do you feel the need to comment here?
Knowing the teachings is one thing, living them is another:) The Hebrew word for believe is an action word, not a mental function…..it’s not enough to believe something if you don’t live it out. Living it out is not a painful offensive process when you are actively involved in developing a relationship with God that is all about you and Him, and not about pointing fingers at everyone else’s fault’s and problems.
I actually find Atheists quite fascinating! I am frequently offended by the arrogance many of them express towards people who don’t agree with them, but I have several Atheist friends, and fortunately they are individuals I can talk with and we can both look past our obvious differences of opinion when that conversation is over:) I never said I don’t like Atheists, I said I don’t like their attitudes, mostly the angry and judgmental comments I see on Blogs about proving to Christians what a bunch of assholes they are:)
You say it’s not about “pointing fingers at everyone else’s faults and problems”, but just a few posts ago, you were pointing out to us that most Christians are hyprocrites and so on. And now you’re also saying that you’re offended by the arrogance of atheists, whom you think are just out to “prove to Christians what a bunch of assholes they are”.
How does all the above show that you don’t like pointing fingers? Or does it rather point to the contrary?
ALL of these factors, with the possible exception of the first one, are artifacts of the racial, not religious, makeup of the south.
let’s be real here, people.
What about the “racial makeup” of the south? I’m curious.
Casual racists are so cute, aren’t they?
I was thinking the exact same thing.
Hahaha
Devoutness in the faith is probably an issue here.
Oh yes, and my marriage won’t survive because I am a devout Christian….it will survive because we are determined to make it work and not to give up on each other. Our faith has certainly enhanced our relationship in many ways, but it is not religion that makes it work, it is commitment and honor, something that one must determine to bring into the home whether they are “religious” or not!!
That was a joke, sugar.
LOL:)
LOL that’s really funny!