Dating

Since starting a relationship right is such an important step in our lives, and God forms such an important part of it, I thought I would lay out several ways in which a relationship can begin and some problems with how the world commonly goes about it. 

Let's begin with dating. According to YourDictionary.com dating is defined this way: 

Dating is defined as to be romantically involved with someone.

Now this ought to be obvious that this is not a good foundation to establish a relationship on. One cannot expect to make a rational and reasonable relationship when romance is the basis. 

The world teaches that in order to get married, one must date as many people as you wish, until you find someone you are compatible with. So let's rephrase that statement exactly what it means, just to clarify what the world basically teaches. 

In order to get married (which is one of the most solemn and sacred relationships mankind can have) you must become romantically involved with various people until you find that special someone. 

I'm sorry. A true romantic relationship is based upon the deepest trust and respect. How can you trust someone who has had romantic relationships with many other people. The advise of the world seems extremely counter-productive to me. This is a romantic relationship without commitment. It has no stated goals, since one or both participants might be seeking a romantic relationship without marriage as a goal. And that approach often leads to heartbreak. 

I think the results speak for themselves. Most relationships that begin with dating do not result in marriage. Most marriages that result from dating are not healthy and strong, well over half of them result in divorce. I would think for a system touted as being able to help you find someone you are compatible with, that's a pretty sad track record. Your chances of success with any particular date is between 12%-38%, and your chances of a successful marriage out of that is between 27%-40%. This means that on the high side of these estimates, only 40% of those seeking to get married by dating will succeed with any particular person, and only 40% of those will last. By my math, this means that dating only has a 16% success rate one the high estimate side.  If you took the more reisticvodds instead of optimistic estimates, you would find the results even worse. That doesn't even consider the number of people who are actually happy long term in their marriages.  I think you will have better odds if you tried to select a companion by flipping a coin. 

Let me end this article by sharing a secret with you. Dating is not the only way to go about looking for a companion. Especially when you include God in the picture, there are better approaches.