Catholic And Atheist Divorce Rates. Who Is Higher?

Question

Oh look conservative Christians were significantly higher than for other faith groups. But of course I'm sure Catholics will find some kind of fault with these statistics?

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

Answer 1

I’d like to point out several things:

1) The ones who collected that data were Christians. This means that IF they have a bias, it would be against atheists; yet it’s not. I reckon the statistics are being reported with relative accuracy.

2) Looking at ONLY Christians, the ones with the lowest divorce rate seemed to be Catholics and Lutherans.

3) When it says CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIANS, it is not wise to assume just Catholics. When I think “Fundie” I think Southern Baptist. From the very link you gave: “One reason for the higher divorce rates in the Bible Belt may be the lower percentage of Roman Catholics in the South. Their denomination does not recognize divorce.”

4) The link you gave repeatedly showed that fundamentalism increased divorce rates, not denomination.

I think Christians (like myself, though I have a few liberal leanings), need to learn WHY atheists have lower divorce rates, and see if we can learn something. I’m not going to stick my head in the sand and pretend the data is wrong.

Answer 2

Happiness is the bottom line. I know Catholics who won't divorce but are miserable.

Answer 3

Actually I am Catholic and agree w/ your research. I know it's not perfect.. I just believe in god and do not let all the other "fluff" get to me. Nothing is sacred anymore. :(

Answer 4

I think that it has less to do with Christian and Atheist cultures and more with American culture.

For instance the divorce rate in Italy is .73 divorces per 1000 people and the US is 3.6 divorces per 1000 people.

Also we all know Catholics don't "technically" allow divorce and as such the Vatican doesn't even allow divorce on religious grounds

DISCLAIMER: The 1000 people includes people who are not of marriageable age or status. It still goes to show though that the US is higher than many strong Christian nations.

Answer 5

Thats because they make notably worse decisions than atheists and more often find themselves in hot water, they have less guile. eg prison statistics.

Answer 6

Atheists have low divorce rates because we don't base marriage around kids and duty. We base it on love

Answer 7

50% of all American marriages end in divorce, you do the math.

Answer 8

You're onto something, but it doesn't really prove anything. The more important question is which has more happy marriages?

Answer 9

same....

Answer 10

Many non-theists of whatever type don't have any particular moral hangups about s*x outside of marriage, gender roles, etc.  I suspect the increase in divorce rates for christian theists specifically can be attributed to one person in the relationship becoming "born again", inadequately knowing someone before marriage, or significant differences in belief/commitment to religion that weren't apparent prior to living with the person.

Edit: Villhelm, nice way to cherry pick the data.  You are right atheist and catholic rates are the same.  That answers the question the initial question. The additional details that many people are responding to, which you ignore, shows that Conservative christians (fundamentalists/evangelicals) *are* significantly higher than non-religious or catholic.

Born-again Christians 27%, Other Christians 24%, Atheists/Agnostics 21%.

Then when you sub-divide christianity down you get the following:



Fundamentalist/Evangelical 34%, Baptists 29%, Mainline Protestants 25%, Mormons 24%, Catholics 21%, Lutherans 21%.

There are a lot of interesting statistics and facts in that article if you bother reading it and not cherry picking what you want to read out of it.

Answer 11

will christians ever write something REAL ?

Answer 12

Divorce for adultery is permitted in Christianity, so the fact some Chrisitans divorce should not be surprising in any way. Nor does it validate the point you are trying to make.

Answer 13

**Golf Clap**

Great job!

**Golf Clap**

You found some wobbly Christians who didn't follow the word and lived like atheists. Great stuff. Now I'm convinced. I've become an atheist now. You must be right. You found it on a liberal web site, so I"m sure there are no lies there!

Answer 14

Not sure if Atheists get married in the first place (who needs a piece of paper?).  One of the shameful facts of recent American life, however, has to be the ease at which divorce is granted ('irreconcilable differences', anyone?).  In some states, a partner can file for divorce, using "ID" as basis, and without the otter partner's knowledge, go on living together for a year as if nothing had changed.  Then, a certified letter arrives from the jurisdictional court, informing the the partner of the finalized action, whereupon the wrangling really begins and the lawyers earn their fees, hammering out alimony and child support payments.

It is the ensuing period that sees (the husband usually) one partner buggered into the poorhouse while the other collects court-mandated payouts equivalent to a decent house's mortgage.  All the while, the celebrated secular society applauds and genuflects in the direction of the sanctified Divorce Agreement, while the 250 catered guests form the wedding remain silent as to the contract status of the marriage license.

Christians are human too, and are off pursuing (personal) happiness, as recommended in the Declaration of Independence.

Answer 15

Protestant fundies.

Answer 16

it is because atheists don't get married.

they all live in sin.

I'm just playing.

Answer 17

According to the stats, they both have 21%.

Catholics 21%

Atheists, Agnostics 21%

I'd say you should read your own sources a little better because <1% isn't usually considered significant!

Answer 18

A Canadian site?  Come on at least give us something from  real country.

Answer 19

In reference to p.t.4 jesus, its amazing how the one sight that promotes religious tollerence, that gives facts and statistics about every religion, with an unbiased attitude, is referred to as "liberal" because it doesn't CATER specifically to christianity.

Answer 20

http://www.webcrawler.com/webcrawler302/...

http://www.divorcereform.org/stats.html

http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_di...

A recent study by the  Barna Research Group throws extreme doubt on these estimates. Barna released the results of their poll about divorce on 1999-DEC-21. 1 They had interviewed 3,854 adults from the 48 contiguous states. The margin of error is ±2 percentage points. The survey found:

bullet 11% of the adult population is currently divorced.

bullet 25% of adults have had at least one divorce during their lifetime.

bullet Divorce rates among conservative Christians were significantly higher than for other faith groups, and much higher than Atheists and Agnostics experience.

George Barna, president and founder of Barna Research Group, commented:

    "While it may be alarming to discover that born again Christians are more likely than others to experience a divorce, that pattern has been in place for quite some time. Even more disturbing, perhaps, is that when those individuals experience a divorce many of them feel their community of faith provides rejection rather than support and healing. But the research also raises questions regarding the effectiveness of how churches minister to families. The ultimate responsibility for a marriage belongs to the husband and wife, but the high incidence of divorce within the Christian community challenges the idea that churches provide truly practical and life-changing support for marriages."

Nope, won't find fault w/ the stats.  Divorce does happen, and sometimes it is the best for all concerned.  Now getting remarried without an annulment, that's a different story.

Answer 21

And what difference does it make?  The question should be WHY did they get divorced, I'm sure their religious or non-religious reasons weren't the only, if any, cause for it. And some religous groups do not allow it...

Answer 22

Who cares.  People of every religion and atheists  get divorced everyday.  If you don't like catholics don't bother looking up stuff on them.  I don't like cats so I don't start reading up on them.  It would be a waste of my time.