Christian divorce rates in US

[inthecloud]

One curious date is that divorce rates among religious Jews (a high income high education group) are about 30% and among muslims are 31%. Baptists are 29% but again. Divorce is tolerated in Judaism and Islam. But that proves that a high income high education group like Jews can have a hight divorce rate. In other forum I used that to prove that was not the lack of education or pobertry the cause.

Atheists/Agnostics have a the same divorce rates of Catholics and Lutherans; 21%. But the first group is often a highly educated group that marries late if they marry at all and have strong personal reasons for marrying. So that might explaing something.
While I believe that hidden catholic divorces were factored out, many hispanic catholics do not marry before cohabiting a long time so that might keep some divorces out of the poll (same dinamic for atheist/agnostics).
About Lutherans I asked them in a forum and they do not know.
I suspect a ethnic cultural thing going for them, since they are influenced by northern european culture and they might marry late or seek a education. I would like to have the imput from a Lutheran in the forum.

 

[AgnosTheist]

I had a psych professor who studied the whole divorce thing years ago. It almost drove him crazy (crazier). The stats defy the logic of the world. Couples that cohabitate prior to marriage are much, much more likely to divorce. Couples who have sex prior to are also more likely to, but not as bad as cohabitating. He wanted to figure out why. He could not come to a conclusion other than there must be something in the understanding of marriage that some Christians have that make them less like to divorce.

Sometimes God marries people, sometimes people marry people. When God is there, it will last, when we do it without him, it will be difficult. We live in a disposable society. Some even think of humans as disposable. Why should marriage be any different to them?

My Catholic parents who never engaged in premarital sex, and got married under the church…they separated. With that said there are many separations & annulments in the catholic country of the Philippines. Now what is God’s hand in all of this? He has nothing to do with all of this. Its all about culture. Look at muslim countries, divorce rates are even lower than the best christian countries. But it is because of fear, insecurity & intolerance. ITS ALL ABOUT CULTURE.

Nothing to do with God whatsoever.

 

[ralphinal]

My Catholic parents who never engaged in premarital sex, and got married under the church…they separated. With that said there are many separations & annulments in the catholic country of the Philippines. Now what is God’s hand in all of this? He has nothing to do with all of this. Its all about culture. Look at muslim countries, divorce rates are even lower than the best christian countries. But it is because of fear, insecurity & intolerance. ITS ALL ABOUT CULTURE.

Nothing to do with God whatsoever.

Actually, Agnos, He still does. Being married is a difficult thing. I do not disagree that culture has a lot to do with it. TONS. But that does not mean that there is no influence from God. A bigger issue might be the presence of God in the culture as a whole. I do not live in the Philippines, so I cannot speak on it. I do hear you and I note that you have first hand experience, so that does give your words weight with me.

I feel that the rates in Muslim countries have something to do with the legal rights of women, but that is another topic all together.

 

[inthecloud]

I feel that the rates in Muslim countries have something to do with the legal rights of women, but that is another topic all together.

True, divorce laws and the economic status of women do influence divorce rates.

But God does have something to do.
Humans are not in a evolutive sense a monogamous species.
Monogamous animals like swans, wolves and parrots are identical between the sexes. Similar for animals that do not establish couples like cats and tigers.
Humans have sexual dimorphism. males are larger, heavier and more agressive than females. That is more related to polygamous animals. Think bulls and cows and seals. And most apes with the exception of gibbons.
But poligamous societies are more violent that monogamous societies because of the increased competition between males.
The sexually liberated 1920s, 1960s and 1970s in the US were periods of increased social violence. Some people say that the acceptance of poligamy and temporal marriages in Islamic societies is one of the reasons for the political and religious violence in some of those societies.
So religious cultural values do matter. The average duration of a falling in love relationship is about 4 years. After that marriages that endure find other things for staying together and ritualize their love. Most couples divorce in their forth year of marriage. So culture need to make couples stay together and that mean that religious values matter.
The problem what religious values are better.