What Is The Real Deal With Divorce?

Why is it often claimed that the divorce rate among religious people is approximately equal to that of the non-religious? Presumably because it is true. 

Why would this be the case? Because religious belief, or any belief for that matter, is ultimately of no importance in maintaining a strong, healthy marriage or any other kind of relationship.

Now what somebody "believes" might influence his behavior, but it is ultimately behavior that determines the direction of any relationship. Of course there is no guarantee belief will engender the required behavior and this is the problem with belief itself.

If somebody “needs” to believe "this" or "that" to behave "accordingly", then certainly believing is a wise path to follow. On the other hand, there are people who need not believe anything to behave in a way that lends itself to success in marriage.

It might seem apparent that people with “strong” religious convictions have successful marriages because of their convictions, but this is naive. I will guarantee you the common link in their marital success is that they follow principles which lend themselves to such success!

What would prevent a couple with no religious convictions from experiencing a very rewarding marriage? Nothing, and it happens all the time!

The bottom line is that people of all religious and nonreligious persuasions will both succeed and fail in marriage and countless other things solely based on their behavior and the principles they follow, not the principles they merely believe or at least claim to believe.

Is Man Trustworthy?

It's funny how those with dogmatic views on "hot-button" issues so arbitrarily justify or deny the democratic process. For instance, concerning referendums to sanction gay marriage, if the majority votes in favor of not legalizing gay marriage, the vociferous "anti-gay marriage" advocates will claim that "man's" verdict is the infallible truth. What a great service democracy is for humanity! 

But how does one suppose these same "anti-gay marriage" advocates would respond if 75% of voters were in favor of legalizing it? "Well, ah, this verdict just, um, demonstrates how sinful and depraved we are, uh, as a society!" We must, therefore, seek God's counsel on this issue! Of course a truly open-minded interpretation of "God's Word" doesn't really have anything to say about gay marriage one way or the other.

Are you starting to see that behind this kind of reasoning is NOT God but competing EGOS all trying to have things their way? Perhaps many of us have taken Burger King's advice a bit too far?

Should The People Decide?

Concerning an issue like gay marriage, should it be determined by a public referendum? If so, should a public referendum in favor of slavery be valid just the same (as I'm sure society would have at some point in the past favored)? If not, why should a public referendum against or even in favor of gay marriage be any more valid just because a majority of its citizens desire it? Just the same, what would a public referendum in Nazi Germany have yielded? Perhaps solidarity with Nazi propaganda?

Majority opinion on a given issue does not necessarily make it right or good, nor does it necessarily make it wrong or bad. How then are we to know what "progress" really is? It seems neither majority opinion nor supposedly benevolent politicians offer any clear answers to this. Perhaps we should seek God to shed light on such matters? If so, the question now becomes, whose God?

Even if majority opinion suggests we follow "God X" (of course as per my fundamental argument even this is dubious), there is still no consensus as to how we are to view "God X" anyway. Does "God X" want a society built upon self-reliance (strive for a more capitalistic approach) or does He prefer a society built upon reliance on Himself and by extrapolation others (strive for a more socialistic approach)? Does He want society to be conformed or tolerant? Does He want a society that places judgment on our failures and scandals or grace, mercy and forgiveness? Does He want a society that embraces ecological balance even at the expense of humanity or does He prefer a society that places utmost importance and care on humanity?

Of course the obvious response to these questions would be to say that God's "truth" lies somewhere in the "middle" of all these dichotomies. But this obfuscates the problem just the same because there is no consensus as to what the "middle" actually entails. Ultimately, people harbor conflicting views of the same God!

Who then can we necessarily trust? Not the masses, surely. Neither can we trust allegedly benevolent politicians. Nor apparently even GOD!* How about trusting ourselves as individuals? I must confess that this scares the living daylights out of me! Trust myself? In any case, how shall we address our intense disagreements? 



*I can't help but think peoples' supposed "trust in God" is simply a proxy for trusting themselves. In other words, it is a projection of EGO onto "all-knowing and infallible God". This in turn elevates peoples' mere opinions to stratospheric "holier than thou" heights because after all, they come not from self but from GOD. So in essence, we seem to arrive back at the idea of trusting ourselves as individuals. But once again, how shall we address our intense disagreements?