Why do you think divorce is more prominent among Christians than among atheists?

Question

RELIGION: % WHO HAVE BEEN DIVORCED
Jews: 30%
Born-again Christians: 27%
Other Christians: 24%
Atheists, Agnostics: 21%

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

BTW, these stats were gathered from a Christian research group, the Barna institute.

Answer 1

Repressed sexuality.
Many youngsters raised in religious families rush into getting married because they don't want to be guilty of fornication.

Answer 2

What the poll didn't ask was how many had ever been in "committed relationships without being married that have now ended?"

It's no surprise that divorce rates are highest among this group, because MARRIAGE rates are highest among this group. They only believe and practice monogamous marital sex for procreation, and the further down the list, the further you get away from that concept of marriage. The Gallup Poll question is misleading in this respect.

The poll question also does not specify that the divorces happened AFTER one or both members of the couple were saved, yet an author cited in the same article blatantly makes that statement. Faulty / incomplete data.

Source(s):
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_di... (your source)

www.galluppoll.com

Evidence of faulty data:

"Download report at "http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_2...
Among the findings in this report: unmarried cohabitations overall are less stable than marriages. The probability of a first marriage ending in separation or divorce within 5 years is 20 percent, but the probability of a premarital cohabitation breaking up within 5 years is 49 percent. After 10 years, the probability of a first marriage ending is 33 percent, compared with 62 percent for cohabitations"

source:
http://www.divorcereform.org/rates.html#...

AND
by Prof. Cary Lantz of the Family Studies Dept. at Liberty University, Lynchburg, Va

"And, while I couldn't put my hands on the report right at the moment, Barna reports that something like 26-27% of Christians identifying themselves as "born again" have been divorced. (I hope I'm not slaughtering his exact language too badly.) (However, to reinforce your point made re: Catholics, Barna also found that -- again from memory, so don't quote me -- something like 30-35% of those identifying themselves as "born again" felt that Jesus wasn't totally sinless! This is heresy to historic Christian faith. My point is not so much theological as it is to affirm your point that people are endorsing labels on surveys (e.g., "Catholic", "evangelical", Christian", "born again") which may be fairly meaningless as far as clarifying their personal beliefs. The labels may be, as you say, "ethnic", or in the case of the diverse ethnic groups comprising Protestantism, the labels may represent a "generational" identity."

source:

http://www.divorcereform.org/mel/rreligi...

Answer 3

i do not recognize. There are all kinds of factors: which area of the country they stay in, how youthful they were even as they were given married, etc. I also chanced in this: >some researchers have stated that faith might want to have little or no result on divorce prices. The apparently larger fee between born-back Christians, and reduce fee between Atheists and Agnostics might want to be because of the impression of economic and/or academic factors. faith might want to have not something to do with it in any respect; it would want to easily be coincidental. for instance: it would want to easily be a geographical element. those who stay interior the Southern U.S. have the utmost divorce fee interior the entire united states, and there are a large number of Christians in that section. also, i imagine that calling it "critically larger" is deceptive. right it really is a chart from the item, pointing out the speed of divorce in each and every non secular crew: Jews 30% Born-back Christians 27% different Christians 24% Atheists, Agnostics 21% it truly is purely 6% larger in born-back Christian circles, and purely 3% larger between different Christians. it would want to also be said that Lutherans and Catholics have an analogous divorce fee as atheists and agnostics. So the project isn't with all Christians, or maybe all conservative ones - Catholics are extremely conservative, are they not? asserting that it truly is "critically larger" or "a lot larger" is hence deceptive. it truly is not that great of a huge difference. one million in each and every 5 atheist or agnostic couples nevertheless receives divorced. enable's not pretend there is not any situation there.

Answer 4

I think a big reason for this is ...
people who claim to be atheist really don't believe in the existance of God. There are, however, many many people who claim to be Christians that do not live a Christian lifestyle.

These people who fill out forms and mark the little box that says "Christian" aren't really Christians, many don't even know what a Christian is, they just know that's what they were told. They went to church on holidays, weddings and funerals since they were children- and they sincerely believe that makes them a Christian.

There are also many people who are Christian, but didn't give their life to Christ until after a divorce, but that still counts them in the stastic.

ALSO... we're not perfect. Never have been. Won't be until we see Christ in heaven. We make mistakes, just like everyone else. We try, and sometimes succeed, but sometimes fail.

Answer 5

Is this per married couples, or the population in general... it makes a difference. Even if it is true, the Athiest spokespersons quote, ironic as it is, is difficult to see as the actual reason for the data. My guess is that it is higher because religious people are more likely to be married than athiest people. Also, how does the data approach mixed couples? Also, one who claims a faith may be very very uninvolved in it as compared to one who claims to be an Athiest. Point being, there's a lot of stuff not said by the data that may play a role.

From the link you provide:

"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."

And they call Christians self righteous...

Oh and we don't think for ourselves which anyone who reads this and simply concludes with the author without asking obvious questions isn't doing much critical thinking either...

Answer 6

My guess is because atheists are more likely to get married because they are truly ready for such a commitment, but religious people may be more likely to get married so they can have sex. Basically, when someone's beliefs promote having to wait till marriage before they are able to have sex, their instincts will tend to get the best of them and make them want to get married before they are ready.

That's just my guess...but some Christians don't wait till marriage and some atheists do choose to wait till marriage. Since the born again group is more likely to divorce than the other (more secular?) christian group...this seems to fit my theory that the having to wait until marriage for sex may cause people to rush into the commitment too early.

Kitten...the percentages used in the question are based on the percentages within each group who get divorced....they would be the same even if there were more atheists than Christians. Get it?

Answer 7

I think that religion doesnt really have a lot to do with divorce. I feel like that some people in a relationship that can't get along anymore knowing that the lord is not going to punish them for getting a divorce. The lord will still love you no matter what so why be unhappy if you know that the one person that matters most is not going to be against you what better choice is there

Answer 8

Those Christians need to read Matthew 5: 31-32

Answer 9

Considering the #'s are probably off because there are a lot of atheists/agnostics that aren't accounted for...and there are more xians anyway...

...but bottom line, I doubt religion or lack thereof has much to do with divorce...more often it's a money issue or a cheating issue...

Answer 10

My question is this. How many people call themselves CHRISTIAN but lack the characteristics of CHRIST? I believe we live in a culture where calling yourself Christian really doesn't mean much. The other point is this. Are the people who are Christians getting divorced before or after they bacame a Christian. One final point "True Christians are not perfect, just forgiven."

Answer 11

Simple. Probably a higher percentage of Christians get married to start with. As opposed to others who merely live together.

You are comparing apples to oranges. We also need to know the percentage of each population that marries at all, don't we?