Replies

As for two people loving each other. Certainly this is not restricted to religios people. Marriage is never a completely smooth road, however. Problems come up. If the relationship is founded solely on what the two people feel for each other and not on some sense of obligation and commitment, it won't last because feelings change.

The idea that just because a couple doesn't believe in your God means they can't make a commitment or have a sense of obligation is just so wrong on so many levels.

It should be what you feel for each other that gives you your sense of obligation and commitment not the other way around. If it were the other way around we might as well bring back arranged marriages.

And again the statistics don't back up your claim, If what you were saying were true in that a marriage between people with no religion "will not last" the divorce rate would be like 90+% among people who have no religion instead of it being around everybody else's. In case you didn't realize people have long marriages in China and Russia and people got married and stayed together long before Christianity and I'm sure they will long after it is gone.

It takes two people for marriage. I think you'll find that in any divorce where one has a belief in the responsibilities entailed in marriage and one that has no such belief, it's usually latter that initiates the divorce. The number given are say nothing about this. If the husband gets a divorce, the wife must also get a divorce (and vice versa), even if she didn't want it. One problems today is that two people may not be particularly religious at the time the get married. Later on, one of them does become more committed, perhaps in part because the marriage itself is not going to smoothly and doesn't satisfy him/her. The reverse may also be true. Two religious people get married. One changes. Divorce.

Not at all, if you go to the link and go to page 25 there is a table "Switched in / Switched out". From 1990-2001 a lot more people over 18 (Net 5.5 Million) have abandoned religion than found it, Yet the divorce rate has remained constant over this time period. If what you are saying were true than the divorce rate should have skyrocketed.

Sorry but no matter how much you wish it were true, Relgiousness doesn't corolate with the divorce rate or any other morals in general.

The survey was interesting. Did you even bother to read the rest or were you just harvesting statistics to bolster your own rationalizations?

Of those in the 'NO RELIGION' group, only 19 percent were married, compared to over 50 percent in every other case (except non-denominational, Buddhist, and Muslim). What's interesting is that the number of divorces is still similar for the NO RELIGION group even though the percent married rate is much lower. Notice this is NOT the percentage of marriages ending in divorce. This is the percentage of all people in that group identifying themselves as divorced. Despite the low percentage married, this number is still similar to other groups. It's common sense that people who don't get married don't get divorced. Normalizing the divorce rate would give a number closer to 20 or 25 percent.

%Married........
NO RELIGION 19
NON-DENOMINATIONAL 27
CATHOLIC 60
BAPTIST 58
METHODIST 64
LUTHERAN 68

%Single/Co-habiting
NO RELIGION 22
NON-DENOMINATIONAL 19
CATHOLIC 5
BAPTIST 5
METHODIST 3
LUTHERAN 4

%Divorced/Separated
NO RELIGION 9
NON-DENOMINATIONAL 9
CATHOLIC 9
BAPTIST 12
METHODIST 9
LUTHERAN 7

The degree of co-habitation as opposed to actual marriage suggests an aversion to commitment. The number of breakups is not included in the divorce/separation statistics. It also would have been interesting to see the number of unwed mothers in each group.

You talk about 5,000,000 people out of 213,000,000. That's less that 1 percent; negligible. Certainly there is a shift in self-identification toward more secular categorization. That was the main point of the survey and no one has said otherwise. As to the divorce rate skyrocketing see above.

The idea that just because a couple doesn't believe in your God means they can't make a commitment or have a sense of obligation is just so wrong on so many levels.

I never said it was necessary to believe in 'my God', which is a ridiculous thing to say considering you don't even know what 'my God' is. You're setting up a straw man here. No one made this claim. The fact remains that if all you have are personal feelings for each other and no sense of commitment beyond that, the marriage won't last. Perhaps it makes you feel better to believe otherwise.

It should be what you feel for each other that gives you your sense of obligation and commitment not the other way around.

Which is the point. What two people feel for each other changes over time. If 'what you feel for each other' is the basis for any obligation and commitment, then that sense of obligation or commitment will disappear along with the feelings.