Your poll isn't going to mean much, because the people here are not necessarily representative of atheists generally. I recommend that you do an online search for polls that have been done on this subject.
As others have noted, your relative's information is out of date. More Americans favor same-sex marriage than oppose it:
http://www.pewresearch.org/data-trend/do...-marriage/
However, in the recent past, the opposite was true, so I think some people here are being unjust in their condemnation of your relative. Your relative's information on this is just out of date, probably not the result of stupidity.
As for atheists, it is a bit difficult to dream up a nonreligious reason to be opposed to same-sex marriage. Some probably have not reconsidered the issue after throwing off their religious beliefs, but otherwise, I doubt you will have very many atheists against same-sex marriage, unless they are just against all marriage.
As for the religious, very often their "arguments" on this are ridiculous nonsense. You have probably heard some people say things like:
Same-sex marriage will destroy traditional marriage.
That is nonsense. I am a man, married to a woman, and whether my male neighbor marries a man, woman, or does not marry, has no impact on my marriage. My marriage is what it is, regardless of what other people do. The claim, that same-sex marriage would destroy traditional marriage, would only be true if those in traditional marriages were thinking,
Damn! If only I had waited, I could have married someone of the same sex as me! Now I will have to get a divorce so I can do that.
Since many of us are not thinking that, or anything like it, it is just a ridiculous idea, that letting gay people marry each other is going to destroy anything.
The religious should just stick to their purely religious ideas on it, and say that they will not allow it in their church or among their members.
As others have noted, your relative's information is out of date. More Americans favor same-sex marriage than oppose it:
http://www.pewresearch.org/data-trend/do...-marriage/
However, in the recent past, the opposite was true, so I think some people here are being unjust in their condemnation of your relative. Your relative's information on this is just out of date, probably not the result of stupidity.
As for atheists, it is a bit difficult to dream up a nonreligious reason to be opposed to same-sex marriage. Some probably have not reconsidered the issue after throwing off their religious beliefs, but otherwise, I doubt you will have very many atheists against same-sex marriage, unless they are just against all marriage.
As for the religious, very often their "arguments" on this are ridiculous nonsense. You have probably heard some people say things like:
Same-sex marriage will destroy traditional marriage.
That is nonsense. I am a man, married to a woman, and whether my male neighbor marries a man, woman, or does not marry, has no impact on my marriage. My marriage is what it is, regardless of what other people do. The claim, that same-sex marriage would destroy traditional marriage, would only be true if those in traditional marriages were thinking,
Damn! If only I had waited, I could have married someone of the same sex as me! Now I will have to get a divorce so I can do that.
Since many of us are not thinking that, or anything like it, it is just a ridiculous idea, that letting gay people marry each other is going to destroy anything.
The religious should just stick to their purely religious ideas on it, and say that they will not allow it in their church or among their members.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
