According to Dale McGowan, author of the forthcoming book In Faith and In Doubt (about relationships between atheists and believers), one in six “religiously unaffiliated” people have spouses who are religious.
One in six.
Think about that.
Then read this article’s subtitle and see if you can spot the math error…
Whoa! 59%? That’s quite the jump…
(For those curious, it’s actually 16.7%)
It’s in the piece, too:
Nearly one in six (59 percent) of the religiously unaffiliated say they have spouses who are religious. Susan Katz Miller, author of “Being Both: Embracing Two Religions in One Interfaith Family,” said her work among couples of different faiths shows there is a need for more information for couples where only one partner is religious.
I don’t even know how a mistake like that happens…
For what it’s worth, the one in six number comes from a self-selected group of people who chose to take an Internet survey, so take it with a grain of salt, but the point is still clear: It’s not exactly rare for an atheist to be married to someone who’s religious.
But it isn’t quite as common as the article suggests.