(August 22, 2015 at 5:07 pm)MTL Wrote: Having said all that,
I am not a big proponent of the idea of marriage to begin with.
I love the idea of Happily Ever After and the White Picket Fence as much as anyone else,
but much like Jesus and Santa Claus, I just don't have any real faith in it.
I figure people cheat.
...
The thing is, not everyone cheats. I have been married over 20 years, and I have never cheated on my wife. I have not really wanted to. Since I am an atheist, it isn't that I am worried about god smiting me or anything like that. I don't want to be the sort of person who cheats, and I also really like being with my wife and don't want to mess that up for some stupid fling. It is a question of how I want to live my life and the sort of person I want to be.
This is not to say that everyone should get married. For many people, it is one of the worst decisions of their lives. But it is what I wanted, and still want.
I was also very careful in my selection of spouse. We became the best of friends before we were married, and we still are the best of friends. I very much expect to be with her for life. Since I am older and men tend to die younger anyway, it is likely that I will die first. And that suits me very well, though whenever I mention it to my wife, she is less than pleased about it. We are very happy together.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.