Pondering...

[cuddlewhore22]

It is, in fact, 7:15am and probably for the first time ever, I'm posting before the sun has come up. But you know, whatever. :) I woke up this morning pondering a statistic that we talked about in my Bible Study on Wed. night. It is as follows: "The divorce rate for a first marriage is generally around 1 in 2. The divorce rate for a first marriage

Comments

[anonymous]

I think the question that needs answering here is, "Does reading the Bible on a regular basis help people find more suitable life partners?" And I guess the answer is, sometimes, yes, but it's not like there are two factors going on here. There are a lot of different things that can help people find suitable life partners and develop a good, lifelong marriage. So I guess my feeling is that I know good marriages that have been helped by religion, bad marriages that had a lot of religion in them, good marriages that didn't have any religion in them, and bad marriages that didn't have any religion in them. I think it can be a good thing, but that number is definitely a tad haywire, in my opinion.

[duckssaymip]

Sorry, that's me, I got logged out somehow...

[cuddlewhore22]

I think that, to be honest, I don't know of any religious marriages that are unhappy, but that could also just be that I don't know that many religious marriages period. I think that the point that was being made at the time that this statistic was given was that people who share a strong foundation do two things: 1) They don't look to divorce as an option and 2) They ask God into their problems and depend on His guidance to help (I don't really wanna get into whether that's nutty or not :) ) In any case, I think it's a different mindset than you would find in society as a whole, which I find interesting.

[anonymous]

where is that statistic from?

[cuddlewhore22]

I'm not sure. I'm working on finding out. Who are you, random commenter?

[duckssaymip]

That one wasn't me, just to let ya know.

[jansong]

I find that statistic a little hard to believe. And for some, do they stay together because they think it is a "sin" to leave? That isn't necessarily a good thing.

[qsical]

I was kind of wondering the same thing. I mean, if you're Catholic and you pray together, sure, you might stay married, but that might be because you think you're going to burn in hell otherwise. Not that you can possibly judge this, but I'd like to see a stat that says 1 in 3 couples that pray together stay *happy* together, ya know?
*lol and shrugs*

[cuddlewhore22]

I thought of that, too. I really don't know the answer to that, but I would bet that at least some stay together just to avoid the whole sin problem.

[firstlight1]

I would be hesitant to put a lot of faith (no pun intended) in that statistic. The fact is, statistics lie - remember the one Prof Smith would use about ice cream sales affecting the drowning rate? I really would want to know where they have the hard proof of this, what constitues really being in a religious marriage, whether they're happy...I mean, I don't go to temple that often, and I don't keep the Sabbath (as evidenced by the fact that I'm in the office on a Saturday morning), but I still feel God is a large factor in my life. *Shruggle* I dunno...I never trust statistics...especially ones that involve marriage.

[cuddlewhore22]

Well, I agree to a point, too. Stats as a whole are pretty tricky. But I think in this case, there's never any way to know for certain that one thing causes the other. The effects of religion/Bible/God can never be truly seen without a doubt, so at some point, the statistics folk would have to be making a leap. I've asked the girls who knew of the stat to see if they could pinpoint the source. As soon as they get back to me, I'll let you know. :)

[gravyisnotsauce]

Hmm, interesting. First of all, I would be hesitant about the strength of that statistic. I wouldn't be surprised if the divorce rate was lower among people who pray together, but I doubt it's THAT much lower