They believe it is changing as a result of changes in wider society, such as, greater individualism and consumerism, or a shift from modern to late modern or postmodern society. Grace Davie believes that religion is not declining, but is just taking a different, more privatised from. This is due to people no longer going to church because they feel they have to or because it is respectable to do so. Churchgoing has declined because attendance is now a matter of personal choice rather than an obligation, as it used to be. Therefore she believes people are now believing without belonging, people still hold religious beliefs but don’t go to church.
Examine the reasons for changes in the patterns of marriage and cohabitation in the last 40 years or so. (24 marks) Over the last 40 years or so, there has been a huge increase in divorce which has fundamentally led to changes in patterns of marriage and cohabitation which has overall resulted in an increase in family diversity. There has been an increase in divorce by the actual numbers of divorces rising from 25,000 in 1961 to 146,000 in 1997. This could be due to the introduction of the Divorce Reform Act 1969. This has made divorce easier to obtain which has overall contributed to the decline in marriage.
There has been a long term decline in the number of births since the 1900, in that year, England and Wales had a birth rate of 28.7, but by 2007 it had fallen to 10.7. There have been fluctuation in birth rates due to the Baby booms in the 20th century. The first two baby boom happened after the war, this is due to service men returning home to their partner and they started the families that they postponed during the war years. The third baby boom in the 1960s, after which the birth rate fell shapely during the 1970. The rate rose during the 1980s, before falling again after the early 1990s, with a recent increase since 2001.
Today, there is a culture of divorce on demand despite the strict substantive provisions of the the MCA 1973. The Morton Commission wanted to avoid this by only allowing petitions for divorce from innocent petitioners who had matrimonial offences “committed against them” during their marriage by guilty respondents. The fault-based approach advocated by the Commission has not been totally removed from the current law. The MCA has been described as a mixed-economy because it contains a mixture of fault-based and non-fault based facts for the petitioner to demonstrate the irretrievable breakdown of a marriage. It is questionable whether fault, a matter more naturally suited to the criminal law is appropriate for such an important area of family law.
Secularisation (decreased value of religion in society) has had a large impact on marriage and cohabitation. Marriage is now viewed as solely being based love, and is often seen to result in divorce if this fails to continue throughout the marriage. This is a large comparison to the religious view of marriage in the past, where it was seen as a life-lasting event. Cohabitation has also become less frowned upon. These changes have resulted in a decrease of marriage; this is as a result of the declining value marriage holds, and the increased ability to get a divorce.
For example, 50 years ago divorce was considered to be shameful and dishonourable as it was considered good for society if couples got married and stayed together. However, since then, although divorce is still a personal misfortune, it is no longer seen as a disgrace. The reason for this change is the shift in social norms and values and also the reinforcements of new laws and changes to existing ones. The major change has been the introduction of the Divorce Reform Act in 1969. This particular law allowed the termination of marriage and made the whole process become a lot easier.
One reason for the high divorce rate in the contemporary UK is because of the changes in the law. For example the main changes took place in 1969 where the Divorce reform act was introduced (Came into effect in 1971), this allowed couples to divorce without having to prove that their relationship has broken down e.g. by showing that they are now living apart. This made it easier for couples to divorce without feeling ashamed because the court did not require a ‘guilty’ partner to be identified. From here in 1984 the law allowed couples to petition for a divorce after one year of marriage instead of three, meaning that couples no longer had to endure an empty shell marriage over a long period of time.
Yet others would argue that even the media still supports nuclear families and is socializing the next generation into thinking that it is right for example ‘The Simpsons’, so despite the increase in divorce and feminism the nuclear family will remain popular in British society. The third argument as to why the nuclear family is no longer the norm is that many religions support the nuclear family and do not agree with other types such as lone-parent. However secularization is causing less and less religious people so
1) What can you learn from Sources A and B about changing attitudes to crimes involving religious beliefs? Source A shows how during the middle ages how strongly society believed that your religion should be dictated and if you did not believe in the religion that they told you to then there would be severe consequences. However Source B shows that the changes to crimes involving religious beliefs have now become un-acceptable and society has become more equal over periods of time. 2) Transportation as an alternative to execution, c1660. Transportation was introduced because the authorities believed that it was a cheap and easy way to eliminate criminals from the country.
There are many reasons why marriage rates have decreased over the years these include Religious significance has dropped dramatically in many western countries including the U.K. Many people no longer feel that marriage is essential. As less people are religious, they are more likely to cohabit or divorce without fear of ‘living a sin’. The decline of religious significance is known as secularisation. Even if people do decide to marry they no longer want the traditional wedding they would rather have something different such as at a Beach or somewhere significant to the people like a supermarket.