"Atheists were almost twice as likely as Christians to condone birthday breakups. We don't want to drag principles into this, but that's not a stupendous reflection on athesits."
I disagree. You know what the marriage rate is for Christians? 50% and lower. Atheists are more honest than Christians, in general, and that's why they have better relationships.
PUBLIC OPINION > Birthday Breakups Are Not OK
SodaHead Living
2012/03/29 20:45:00
Nobody likes to be dumped, and sometimes it just falls apart at the most inopportune time. But getting dumped on your birthday has got to be one of the cruelest ways to go. A writer for How About We recalled a time he actually did that -- not for any specific reason, per se, except that he couldn't stomach a family get-together with a smile. But we had to ask the public if breaking up on someone's birthday possibly be justified.
We didn't expect the results to be any different than they were, but we were very interesting in hearing the reasons behind the "Yes" votes, and to take a look at the demographic breakdown. As it turns out, there were some interesting finds, so let's start with the justifications. The most common of these can be summed up in a single word: Revenge. One commenter wrote, "If they cheat on you? YES. Break their heart whenever you want." Also, some of the positive responses were sarcastic. Like this one: "The opportunity to write that on a cake only happens once a year -- seize the moment!" Or this: "Well I never knew when their birthday was. Any day is fine."
Men Are More Likely
Fortunately, neither gender was anywhere near OK with a birthday breakup, but there was a margin. Men were 10% more likely to give the green light, about one in three, while women were closer to one in four. Actually, those are unsettling numbers when you look at it that way. One in three is kind of a lot.
Atheists Are More Willing
The most significant demographic margin we saw was in the religion category, between atheists and Christians. Atheists were almost twice as likely as Christians to condone birthday breakups. We don't want to drag principles into this, but that's not a stupendous reflection on athesits.
Mixed Company
Now this is something we don't see often. Usually, conservatives and Christians vote similarly, while liberals and atheists vote similarly in the other direction. However, even with a large sample base in each demographic, this poll switched it up. Liberals sided with Christians in opposing birthday breakups, while conservatives sided with atheists in showing more support. In short, be wary of conservative atheist boyfriends on your birthday.
If you'd like to vote on this question, dig deeper into the demographics, or engage in existing discussion about the topic, visit our poll about birthday breakups. We'd love to hear from you!
Top Opinion
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Something Sea 2012/03/29 21:22:15
At last... a genuine sign of the Apocalypse. Bound to happen eventually!
Sarcasm aside, as a general rule I don't think it's a good thing to do to a person. I mean, I wouldn't want someone breaking up with me on my birthday, so why would I do that to another person? On the other hand if they're just a horrid person I can understand it. So barring special circumstances, in general I would say it's not a very nice thing to do.
This question was really a no-brainer
OCCASION THAN BIRTHDAY!
I disagree. You know what the marriage rate is for Christians? 50% and lower. Atheists are more honest than Christians, in general, and that's why they have better relationships.
Many "Christians" cohabitate, but I think we can agree its fair to say that cohabitation is not a Christian principle, but rather an atheist one in general, and that actually most atheists suggest cohabitation as the way to a successful marriage. After the statistic about Christian marriage failure rate...
Many "Christians" cohabitate, but I think we can agree its fair to say that cohabitation is not a Christian principle, but rather an atheist one in general, and that actually most atheists suggest cohabitation as the way to a successful marriage. After the statistic about Christian marriage failure rates was released Atheists were pretty pronounced about that being thanks to atheists cohabitating before marriage (which runs under the false assumption that people who call themselves "Christians" don't cohabitate as well).
A scientific survey, conducted by researchers at Denver University, of over 1,000 married men and women in the United States of America found those who moved in with a lover before engagement or marriage reported significantly lower quality marriages and a greater possibility of a separation than other couples. About 20 percent of those who cohabited before getting engaged had since suggested divorce - compared with only 12 percent of those who only moved in together after getting engaged and 10 percent who did not cohabit prior to marriage. (and this is early in the relationships, obviously the effect increases with time)
For married couples the percentage of the relationship ending after 5 years is 20%, for cohabitators the percentage is 49%. After 10 years the percentage for the relationship to end is 33% for married couples and 62% for cohabitators.
If you look at atheist's sexual relationships as a whole, combined with their marriage success rate the failure rate is anywhere from 75-85%. (Which I think would probably be pretty similar in fact, to the adjusted success rate of Christian marriages since there are "christians" who cohabitate as well, although they are slightly less likely).
What I'm trying to demonstrate is that numbers can be pretty deceiving, and at the very least the claim that atheists have overwhelmingly better relationships is false. You may be right that atheists in general are more honest, I could almost agree because I accept that very few people who call themselves Christians are in fact Christians. But when you look at marriages formed out of a biblical lifestyle of abstinence and a very serious marriage, you see that the success rate is VERY high. There are a lot of studies about premarital chastity as far as how it translates into sexual fulfillment and it's pretty well-documented that it leads to a more satisfying sex life and much higher marriage success rate.
It's just another day, who cares.