Magh Krushna Ekadashi
USA: According to recent statistics, Divorce rates among conservative Christians were significantly higher than other faith groups, and much higher than Atheists/Agnostics.
So who is most likely to get divorced? Ranked from highest divorce rates to lowest:
- Non-denominational/ Evangelical Christian (62% MORE LIKLEY than general population to get divorced.)
- Baptists (38% MORE LIKELY Than the general population to get divorced)
- Protestants (19% MORE LIKELY Than the general population to get divorced)
- Mormons(14% MORE LIKELY Than the general population to get divorced)
- Catholics/ Lutherans (No difference between these groups and the general population)
- Atheists/Agnostics(10% LESS LIKELY Than the general population to get divorced)
Ron Barrier, Spokes person for American Atheists remarked on these findings with some comments against organized religion. He said:
"These findings confirm what I have been saying these last five years. 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. With Atheism, women and men are equally responsible for a healthy marriage. There is no room in Atheist ethics for the type of ‘submissive’ nonsense preached by Baptists and other Christian and/or Jewish groups. Atheists reject, and rightly so, the primitive patriarchal attitudes so prevalent in many religions with respect to marriage."
The Associated Press computed divorce statistics from data supplied by the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Health. The data showed the highest divorce rates were found in the Bible Belt. "Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama and Oklahoma round out the Top Five in frequency of divorce…the divorce rates in these conservative states are roughly 50 percent above the national average."
Want to know where the lowest divorce rates are? Back east with all those "Liberals!" Only 19% of marriages in the liberal east end in divorce.
References:
The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay.
- "Christians are more likely to experience divorce than are non-Christians," Barna Research Group
- "Bible belt has nation’s worse divorce rate," CNN.com
- David Crary, "Deep in the Bible Belt, a counterattack on the nation’s worst divorce rate," Detroit News,
- William V. D’Antonio, "Walking the walk on family values," The Boston Globe, 2004-OCT-31,
- James Veverka, "The moral hypocrisy of the Bible Belt," Stop The Religious Right,
- Arland Thornton, "Children and Marital Stability," Journal of Marriage and the Family, Vol. 39, #3, Pages 531-539.
- "Bible Belt Leads U.S. In Divorces," National Center for Policy Analysis
- "U.S. state divorce rates…including 2004 data." Divorce Reform
Source: shine.yahoo.com