> The reason there is such a ridiculous divorce rate these days is that marriages are based on feelings. "I feel love for you; let's get married." Inevitably, the feelings will wane, and if the marriage isn't built on anything stronger, *obviously* it's going to fall apart. You can't "feel" love for someone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. You can, however, *choose* to love someone constantly, and with a right-headed decision to do so, the feelings (less needy, selfish feelings, I might add) fall into place as a result. One reason I think arranged marriages have such a notorious reputation for success in certain cultures (not that I'm advocating them) is because it is ingrained in those cultures that that's the way things are done. If you are resolved to abide by a previously arranged marriage and commit yourself to making it successful, that decision is, in fact, love, and however unromantic the notion, it stands to reason, given the above, that it would have a better chance for success.
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> Interestingly, the divorce rate in the USA, somewhere in the area of 50-55 percent, does not differ significantly within any particular religious sect -- Catholic, Protestant, some religion not based on the Christian God at all -- except for the particular subgroup of Bible-believing, so called "born again" Christians, where it is somewhere under a third of that percentage.
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> Can you love without God? Certainly I have seen great love in others that did not know God. I believe Man was created in God's image, and I believe that image to be not entirely physical. Since the fall from the Garden of Eden, sin has corrupted that image (ours, not God's :-) ), but there are vestiges of godliness in all of us, and certainly we have nature and conscience as vague indicators of what is right and true and what isn't. But speaking for myself, I certainly wouldn't want to be without God's great love, more powerful and compassionate than any even the most loving of others can give.

My parents take on the divorce rate is that people expect to be happy all the time once they get married. Once they have an argument they think somthing must be wrong and blame their partner. Which leads to more arguing and divorces.
I'm still trying to get to the point that people who don't regonzie the exitance of God can still experiece the true love of which you speak. The love in which you give yourself over, fully, with no reservations, isn't excullsivly God's. All people are capable of it but it scares the bejezzes out of us. God helps a lot of people get intouch with that part of themselves which is a good thing. But there are other paths, including the lesser love american pop culter uses so often. Infatuation can lead to true love, if both members are mature about it.

Spider-nothingisbutthinkingmakesitso-Boy