Divorce rate by religions.

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From http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_dira.htm

Jews 30%
Born-again Christians 27%
Other Christians 24%
Atheists, Agnostics 21%

Interestingly the Moonies had the lowest divorce rate at 17.5%. In case your not familiar with them, they were married in mass ceremonies, many of them had never met.

Among Christian groups: "Divorce rates among conservative Christians were much higher than for other faith groups."

Ron Barrier, Spokespersonn 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 calibre 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."

Comments? Bunk or is something there?

 

I think these statistics show that religion doesn't make much of a difference. Only a 9% difference between the highest and the lowest - only a tenth of what the difference could be. If say there was at least a twenty % difference, then I would make something out of it.

Plus you can't blame divorce on one single factor. What about objective standards such as social status, income, and number of children and subjective standards such as personality and childhood experience?

This topic of divorce hits home to me. I will never divorce. I have made this promise to myself. And it doesn't really have to do with my faith. This decision comes from past experience and my outlook on marriage and love.

 

Yeah, I made that promise too. But my spouse didn't. And I live in a state that automatically grants a divorce when one is filed. There was nothing I could do to stop it. Believe me, I tried. Who me, bitter? Nah.

 

That is why I am going to marry someone I trust, not just the first female that walks in the door.

I want to marry someone who unquestionably will stand by me. And I will unquestionably stand by her. This means really getting to know and understand her before marrying her.

If this is so impossible to ask, then I guess I will die single.

 

Could it be that those of higher moral integrity simply feel that they are being honest divorcing rather than staying in a marriage that they cannot make work and wasting each others lives?

 

I haven't had time to read the article, but it does strike me that just looking at the rate of divorce would not really give a complete picture.

If you consider the proportion of married couples, and their reasons for marrying, I would suggest that in this day and age for agnostics / atheists at least that the proportion is much lower than for religious groups.

Thus those agniostics / atheists that do marry, are more likely to marry because they believe it's the right thing to do for them.

For Christians to marry is not really an option in a relationship if you want to take it further so to speak.

You would therefore actually expect a higher divorce rate in my opinion for religious groups since marriage is a function of beliefs and expectation, not necessarily giving enough time and experience to judge if it's the best thing to do in terms of a relationship.

Just a thought anyway.

 

Alright, I'm going to indulge in some devil's advocacy for a moment.

Mother T -- if non-religious people felt more at ease with divorce, wouldn't this argue that there should be a higher instance of divorce among them than among the religious groups? Maybe I misread that post.

Viking -- the only problem with your theory is accounting for the divorce rate amongst the Moonies who have a significantly lower divorce rate than any other religion. You were voicing the idea that religious couples feel compelled to get married at an earlier stage than non-religious couples (which makes sense, I've lived with my gf for three years now and consequently come to know her much better, something frowned upon by many major religions, indeed perhaps even hell worthy according to some. If we hadn't been able to be together without marriage perhaps we would be married.) The idea is that because religious couples feel compelled to get married they spend less time getting to know their partner on average than non-religious couple which leads to incompatability. Many of the Moonies though never had even met, yet they have the lowest divorce rate of anyone. How does that factor in?

 

Bad Laches! Intellectual dishonesty!

On down there is a further breakdown by denomination:

Non-denominational (small groups; independents) 34%
Baptists 29%
Mainline Protestants 25%
Mormons 24%
Catholics 21%
Lutherans 21%

At any rate, the problem with such studies is that they cannot define their categories well. Is a Lutheran still a Lutheran if he never attends church? What if he was never confirmed but still goes to church? Self-identification is useless in these things because many people think of themselves as Jews, Catholics, etc. even though they have not practiced their religion in years.

For the point that I think you're suggesting -- that Christianity hinders marriage or encourages divorce -- you need data regarding practicioners of their faith, not just those who lay claim to one. I'd suggest questions on church attendance, adherence to denominational doctrine, etc. I have never seen such a study done, so here's your chance for fame and fortune.

I notice no data on Muslims. I would expect that any religion that encourages polygamy and allows divorce in any circumstance would have high rates, but I'd like to see some hard numbers.

Also nothing on Hinduism, Shinto, Buddhism, etc. The more conservative societies with arranged marriages actually have even lower incidence of divorce.

[Edited to add:] The reasoning on the Moonies is simple to counter. Any Moonie getting a divorce is shunned. Like any cult, you're supposed to obey the cult leader, and once he's picked you a mate you're supposed to stick with it.

Also, the analysis is limited to the U.S. As a quick look around these boards will tell you, we've got our own set of problems here. (Hey, for all we know it's the Baptists' fault, an American phenomenon.) To make any larger point you'd need to look at the global population.

[ October 08, 2002, 16:32: Message edited by: Shralp ]

 

Nah Shralp, I don't really have a horse in this race. I saw it and thought it could create some interesting conversation.

There are a couple ways to approach this -- A) debate the meanings of the findings or B) reject their validity. You chose the latter, the others the former.

You're correct of course that to the best of my knowledge, the poll does not distinguish between a practicing Catholic and a Catholic who hasn't been to mass in 30 years. However, assume for a moment the data is flawed in this way, doesn't the data still hold some interest in that it shows the divorce rate amongst those who identify with the various religions?

OFF TOPIC
Just for you Shralp, I have an amusing link about the Moonies. They apparently control the Republican Party, came up with the idea for Star Wars, and are the key supporters and founders of the Washington Times. Hmm, strict mind control cult and Republicans......hmmmm....... just good natured jesting. Funny site: http://www.realjournalism.net/times.htm

 

I'm thinking that many religious people divorce because it's hard for one person (say, the Christian) to live with the other (say, the non-Christian, or not-as-devout-as-could-be-Christian).

Atheists/Agnostics, on the other hand, probably care less about the religiousness of their spouse (unless it comes to the point of preachiness or fanaticism)

Just because divorce rates are higher doesn't prove a certain faith is more "right" or "better" than another.

 

I believe I recall from a long-ago university course that there was an inverse correlation between religiousness and the age at which women married, and almost no correlation between religiousness and marriage age for men. This would mean that the age gap- one of the most significant indicators of future divorce, along with ethnic differences- would be higher among religious couples. I also wonder if the religious perhaps have higher expectations from marriage and are subsequently more disappointed by the reality than atheists who believe themselves more "rational" and therefore might go into marriage with more determination than optimism.

On a related note. I used to do a lot of volunteer work for a pro-life agency and one of our most shocking (to me, anyway) client statistics was that the girls who ended up having abortions despite our assistance were far and away the ones from the most religious families- in particular, Roman Catholics. I imagine this caused them enormous pain a few years later, but at the time they were more willing to do what they often admitted they believed to be murder than admit to their families that they had had sex before marriage. How dreadful. Anyway, this is what made me wonder if the expectations religious people often have of their loved ones' moral standards was a factor in the divorce rates among religious couples.

 

Quite possibly. I was raised Catholic. I am no longer practicing, I no longer believe in the religion I was raised in. I do not identify myself as a Catholic persay, but it is a big part of me. I can't help it, so I won't deny it. to do so would be foolish, IMO.
As for marrying, I did not do so lightly. We were engaged for two years before marrying, so although I was young (21) I was not a starry eyed fool. Adn, I was willing to do almost anything needed to keep my marriage intact. I did not leave until the pysical abuse began.
While I do not consider myself blameless in my marital problems, I do consider myself blameless in my divorce. Most people don't seem to understand the distinction.

 

There's the demographic side of this too. The article is entitled "U.S. DIVORCE RATES: For various faith groups, age groups, & geographic areas".

But when you begin to disect it simply on Religion, as Shralp said it can be misleading. Religion transcends national borders, and cultures have also affected how a certain religion is practiced. Imagine an American Catholic and a Mexican Catholic. Same religion, same Pope, but I bet you'll see big differences in how both live and represent their Catholicism. I would imagine the same situation when comparing a Jew who lives in Israel to a Jew who lives in New York.

 

Heh. Here in DC we do indeed refer to the Washington Times as the Moonie paper. I believe its majority owner is still the Moon family. But I still check it out from time to time because people leak stuff to it that they won't send to the Washington Post, especially foreign policy and defense stories.