Divorce laws in the United States are significantly more lenient today than many years ago, especially during the World War II era. A marriage defined by Merriam-Webster is a legally sanctioned contract between a man and a woman to be together for life. This definition is not that far from the religious definition of marriage. From a religious point of view, however, depending on your specific religion, marriage is understood as the union of a relationship forever, even eternity. Although both the dictionary and religious definitions of marriage seem quite similar and simple enough to understand, for those who are willing to take that leap into an everlasting bond, there are those who depend on the simplest legal definition of marriage, which is simply defined as a civil contract between two people who meet the legal requirements for marriage established by the state in which they live. However, unlike the harsh reality of how divorce was viewed in centuries past, it is now an easily visible loophole in the legal definition of marriage because, like any other contract entered into, it can always have the possibility of being broken. The statistics speak for themselves about how high the divorce rate is, what it doesn't show is how many people are affected by the outcome of this easily dissolvable union. According to American Divorce Reform, data for the United States shows a shocking, yet familiar statistic that 50% of marriages end shortly after they begin. Since the early 1960s, marriage and divorce have gone through intense changes that have significantly changed the meaning of marriage as it was once seen, increasing the chances of it ending in divorce due to problems at.... ..half of the card......are a gift.Works CitedCrouch, John and Colleen Fannin. “What is divorce reform?” American Divorce Reform (2002): “About the Law.” LawInfo. 1995. February 28, 2011. .Marcasa, Stephanie “Divorce Laws and the Divorce Rate in the United States.” IDEAS May 29th. 2009: Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. 11th ed. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 2005. Robinson, B.A. . "Divorce and remarriage". Religious tolerance. April 27, 2000. March 2, 2011. .Stevenson, Betsey and Justin Wolfers. “Marriage and Divorce: Changes and Their Driving Forces.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 21 (2007): 27-52. Wilson, Bruce "What's Good? What's Bad? And What's Disconcerting?". Huffington Post November 9, 2010. March 1. 2011 .