Correlation does not equal causation.
“Family planning” is a catholic thing. I would argue that any couple that goes to church and follows their church’s instructions will divorce less. This study is slanted in favor of catholics.
Is there a legitimate alternative explanation for low divorce rate among practitioners of NFP?
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Excellent! Last time I checked, the data showed around a 4% divorce rate; this is even better. And if these same folks attend daily Mass together, now or when they’re older, participate in Confession and Rosary-recitation frequently, their chances of divorce are almost nil.
This is not a scientific study for causation. All this attempts to generate is religious people have a lower divorce rate.
“You know what you call people who practice Natural Family Planning?”
“What?”
“Parents.”
(My mom, Catholic mother of a half-dozen, to my brother, at his wedding)
I think there is a selectivity issue here. Those who have stable marriage, more religious, and so on, are more likely to choose NFP compared to those who don’t have stable marriage or being more religious. So, it may not mean that if you use artificial birth control, you’d experience divorce, unhappiness, etc. At least, that’s not a conclusion that we can draw from this data.
**have a dramatically low (0.2%) divorce rate;**
This is a huge “WOW!”
No! Divorce is not the greatest tragedy. The death of a child is the greatest tragedy. Divorce can only get second place.
It is only those people who are disinclined to divorce in the first place who love enough to practice NFP.
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I am glad to here about the “positive” results of NFP, but I do not think that I understand the concept. Is the goal to not have a child? I have read through some of the posts in this thread and it appears that a child is equated to a failure, this does not appear to line up with “children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward”. Why work against God’s reward?
Like I said, I may not understand the concept...My wife and I were told we would not have children by three different doctors and after leaving it in God’s hands we now have seven, and will accept more if it is God’s will.