Divorce Rates and Religion

Religioustolerance.org posted stats recently about divorce rates amongst different religious denominations. The article is well researched and well cited, and reveals some interesting stuff:

Divorce rates among conservative Christians were significently higher than for other faith groups, and for Atheists and Agnostics.

Jews	30%
Born-again Christians	27%
Other Christians	24%
Atheists, Agnostics	21%

No data was posted for Muslim or interfaith families, and Jews (of course) are the worst.



The report comes down hard on born again Christians, saying that they are ignoring a difficult reality in their midst.



Personally, I'm not particularly surprised by the data. In a marriage, people need to effectively assert themselves and communicate their needs and desires. Simply being religious does not make this any easier. In addition, I wonder if belonging to certain denominations may actually impede partners from viewing each other as real equals.



What do you think?

U.S. divorce rates for various faith groups, ages groups & geographic areas :: Religioustolerance.org via :: Digg

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15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense

Although the publicity surrounding the teaching of evolution vs. the teaching of so called creation science or intelligent design has waned, the fact remains that legislators in a number of states continue to prepare legislation on the subject. Here in Canada, the religious right is gaining momentum (we're always a little behind the U.S. - I hope we had missed this outright) starting to lobby for similar things here.

Next time the subject comes up at a PTA, whip out a copy of

"15 Answers to Creationist Nonesense" from Scientific American.

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The End of Religion? Ask Nietzche

Religion and morality are complicated issues for many people, and since
we are an interfaith family the subject of teaching these things is
coming up more and more regularly. Although Curious Boy is too young by
far to get any of it, we hope that by talking we can hash out some
semblance of a coherent position by the time he is a bit older




There has been a few recent articles chronicling the rise to prominence
of the "New Athiests". Most visible is Richard Dawkins (YouTube),
who even appeared recently on South Park. Dawkins' principle weakness
is that he is as much a fundamentalist as the people he derides.



A more moderate voice in the debate is Sam Harris (LINK) author of Letter to a Christian Nation.



In last week's International Herald Tribune (via The Boston Globe) Harris argues that religion is a bad reason to be good.

America's midterm elections are fast approaching, and their outcome

could well be determined by the "moral values" of conservative

Christians.

While this possibility is regularly bemoaned by liberals, the link

between religion and morality in our public life is almost never

questioned.

One of the most common justifications one hears for religious faith,

from all points on the political spectrum, is that it provides a

necessary framework for moral behavior. Most Americans appear to

believe that without faith in God, we would have no durable reasons to

treat one another well. The political version of this morality claim is

that the country was founded on "Judeo-Christian principles," the

implication being that without these principles we would have no way to

write just laws.

It is, of course, taboo to criticize a person's religious beliefs.

The problem, however, is that much of what people believe in the name

of religion is intrinsically divisive, unreasonable, and incompatible

with genuine morality.

The truth is that the only rational basis for morality is a concern for the happiness and suffering of other conscious beings.

This emphasis on the happiness and suffering of others explains why

we don't have moral obligations toward rocks. It also explains why

(generally speaking) people deserve greater moral concern than animals,

and why certain animals concern us more than others. If we show more

sensitivity to the experience of chimpanzees than to the experience of

crickets, we do so because there is a relationship between the size and

complexity of a creature's brain and its experience of the world.

Unfortunately, religion tends to separate questions of morality from

the living reality of human and animal suffering. Consequently,

religious people often devote immense energy to so- called "moral"

questions - such as gay marriage - where no real suffering is at issue,

and they will inflict terrible suffering in the service of their

religious beliefs.

READ MORE



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