Divorce rates

This week we talked about marriage and divorce rates. We talked about predictors of divorce and what are causes leading to divorce. We talked about education, prior divorce, those who marry very young, dual earner households, Parents divorced, culture, finances, and religion. I though it was interesting to learn that those couples who claim atheism are more likely to divorce than those couples who are religious. I think there are many reason for this. I feel that religion gives greater purpose and meaning to life and helps people to be accountable so it generally causes people to strive to grow and to hold themselves to a certain standard. Most standards that serve to nourish and strengthen family relationships and personal progression. I also feel it is because religious people tend to have a greater value for family relationships and growth and are more committed as they see them as a part of a greater plan for life and in some religions even see them as eternal. This can have a great influence in the marriage unit and the function of the family as a whole. Something we also talked about how we view marriage today as that 50% of all marriages end in divorce. This causes a lot of pessimistic views of marriage and I feel cause a lot of people to have fears and reserves for commitment to marriage because of the daunting statistics of divorce rates. In reality Brother Williams pointed out that statistics are in some ways misconstrued. A lot of the statistics are taken also from people the same people who have divorced multiple times which of course increases the divorce rates but doesn’t provide a realistic percentage of each persons likelihood of divorce individual. Its also true that if a person is divorced they are more likely to divorce again. So the truth is considering that Bro. Williams stated that statistics are that 70% of all people who have never divorced before stay together. This to me gives a great deal of a more positive/optimistic outlook on marriage. We need to have society more familiar with all these statistics that show a better reality of divorce rates. I feel it could change a lot of attitudes that exist today as a result of the daunting probabilities that are currently being represented.