Believe it or not - religion will make a difference.

A disbelief in organised religion and superior deities can help your love life, according to new research.

A study of 500,000 first contact messages from an online dating website has revealed that when embarking on a new relationship it helps you most to have no religious beliefs.

The results show that people with atheist or agnostic beliefs are the most successful on the dating market, with a 42 per cent positive response rate – 10 per cent above average.

However, the mention of God or a deity garnered negative reactions, with only 30 per cent of users receiving responses when discussing religion, says the report by OkCupid.

This seems to suggest that the first steps down the road to romance are more successful if God and religion are removed from the equation.

Inigo Taylor, a 21-year-old photography student at the University of Lincoln, explained that religious beliefs had never factored in any of his previous relationships, but he believed they could work as a strong bond to bring two people together.

“I’m not a religious man but I’m not an atheist either,” he said.

“First of all, I think religion is the wrong word to use. It’s more of a matter of faith. Faith can be great for relationships.

“It can serve as a strong mutual ground and I really admire people who have such strong convictions.

“If a relationship begins between two people of completely different faiths, or with someone who has no faith at all, then there shouldn’t be too much problem.

“It’s not the most important thing when it comes to pursuing someone.

“But if things started to get a little more serious down the line, it could be a problem.

“Say someone is particularly religious and the other person isn’t, there could be a lot of stigma attached to the one who isn’t in terms of family and settling down.”

Adversely, Joe Marshall, a 22-year-old administration assistant from Lincoln, believes that religion can cause problems within relationships.

“Many religions encourage you to repress your sexual urges until marriage,” he said.

“But I’d argue that its difficult to form a full, romantic relationship without sex.

“The indoctrination that ‘sex is evil’ can seriously affect your outlook on day-to-day life.

“People who keep urges bottled up for too long can go overboard when they finally experience what they’ve been avoiding for so long.

“I think religion affects relationships in the same way that it does every day life. The more religious you are, the more it colours the way you see the world.

“You really want to be with someone with the same views as you. If you’re not one person will always look down on the other.”