(December 3, 2010 at 7:02 pm)Tiberius Wrote:(December 3, 2010 at 6:21 pm)Paul the Human Wrote: Marriage is a social and financial commitment/contract to share a life together. Take away the religious aspects and all that's left is the legal commitment and financial benefits that the marriage contract provides (which are actually outweighed by the high cost of living as a family). Which means... take government out of marriage and all you have left are roommates that have sex with each other.Not true. Take the government out of marriage and you have a bond between two people who love each other. Are you honestly saying that the government is the only reason that makes marriage special?
Not at all. I'm married and I love my wife and would love her whether we were married or not. However, living together as a family is far more expensive than living separately. Legal marriage offers tax breaks and other benefits (not to mention the positive effect on credit ratings, insurance costs, etc) that make life as a family a little more financially feasible. It also offers protection, by way of being a legally binding contract. Without that, imagine how many more people would be preyed upon.
So, without the religion part, marriage is a legal contract... nothing more. Without the legal contract part... it is simply two people (+ children), who may or may not love each other... living as a family... not a marriage.
