Define Marriage

[Nope]

If a person wants to be a stay at home parent, it would make sense to have more than one spouse so that the working spouses could spread the financial cost of the children among themselves. I'm not certain how divorce would work in such an arrangement but if the marriage succeeds, the children have several grandparents and more than two parents to show them love and affection. When you remove religion from polygamy, I don't see why it wouldn't be an option for some families.

[robvalue]

Sure, I have no moral objection to polygamy. Which makes me closer to biblical morality than Christians

My concerns would be the legal aspects of such a group arrangement. But if that could be sorted out, and all parties are honest and consent, I don't see the problem. Regardless of whether the relationship is legal or not, it can still exist. Nothing is stopping people seeing multiple partners, not even the law.

I guess the biggest issue would be in regards to children, and how raising them would work. But in theory, I see nothing wrong in having more than 2 "parents".

[Pyrrho]

Rebecarox, I cannot say that personally I care all that much. The depravity, promiscuity,  and over-sexualization of Western culture have already done their damage, unwed mothers, high abortion rates, custody battles, etc.. I choose to ignore it and go on with my life. And yet, on an intellectual level I cannot ignore the likelihood that alternative forms of marriage will have negative cultural effects. Many of those will eventually affect me and the people I care about. Anyone that is concerned about crime, equal opportunity, income disparity, and social stability should seriously reflect on such changes.

For example, I had a friend that was raised in a commune. None of the children were certain about who their real parents were. When the adults gave favor to some children over others for no apparent reason, the children got very confused. While not inevitable, these kids grew up with lots of issues. Few people would deny that today’s high divorce rates and serial monogamy negatively affect the children. Why would Western democracies want to create even more problems for themselves?

Robvalue, unfortunately the concerns raised by the 'slippery slope' argument have already started. I know of at lease one case about the constitutionality of plural marriage bans has started making its way through the courts.

There are many things that correlate with the divorce rate.  Take a look at:

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_23/sr23_022.pdf

If you wanted to reduce the divorce rate, one way would be to prohibit marriage before the age of 25.  The document to which I have given a link above uses the age of the woman at the first marriage, and, basically, the older the woman, the less likely the marriage will end in divorce.  About 25 seems to get past the worst of the part associated with age, but there are other things that correlate with the divorce rate.

As for how this compares with gay relationships, there are gay people who have been together for decades, and there are some who are always in transitory relationships.  In other words, they are like heterosexual people in this regard, and we can expect that gay marriage and social acceptance of homosexuality will increase the likelihood of a gay relationship lasting longer.


Not that it matters for this discussion, but I am married, and have been for over 20 years.  For both my wife and me, it is our first marriage.  We are very happy together, and expect to be happily married until one of us dies.

[Silver]

Marriage: one adult marrying another adult.

[Nope]

Rebecarox, I cannot say that personally I care all that much. The depravity, promiscuity, and over-sexualization of Western culture have already done their damage, unwed mothers, high abortion rates, custody battles, etc..

Western culture is no more deprave than other cultures. Because I am on my phone I can't provide links but if my computer is working then I will look some up tomorrow. Countries with better sex education and easy access to birth control have lower abortion and teen pregnancy rates. The problem with the US culture is we let religious attitude about sex win out over pragmatism.

I am curious about which periods in history that you feel were better then the one you live in now. Despite our current problems, I do not want to emulate a time period with segregation. My mother gree up in almost third world type poverty in rural NC during the fifties. The past would have been a shitty time to live for women and minorities

.

Anyone that is concerned about crime, equal opportunity, income disparity, and social stability should seriously reflect on such changes.

How does same sex marriage affect crime or income disparity?

[Polaris]

Where your dreams go to die.

[Kitty Galore]

It is and always should have been a legal document for a human couple who want to legally promise to spend their lives together. A piece of paper. I will never let a piece of paper define my relationship again.

[robvalue]

I agree, that is basically all it is. It doesn't make the relationship magically any better, nor any more likely to work out.

I think the reason some people are so frightened of the idea of gays getting married is that they think this will "validate" gays as their equal. They want marriage to be their exclusive club, and the inferior sub species should be kept out of it. Well, too bad. That is your problem, and it's based on nothing but bigotry. It's way past time everyone had equal rights. Being gay should be of no more consequence than what you decide to wear on the day.

[Kitty Galore]

I agree, that is basically all it is. It doesn't make the relationship magically any better, nor any more likely to work out.

I think the reason some people are so frightened of the idea of gays getting married is that they think this will "validate" gays as their equal. They want marriage to be their exclusive club, and the inferior sub species should be kept out of it. Well, too bad. That is your problem, and it's based on nothing but bigotry. It's way past time everyone had equal rights. Being gay should be of no more consequence than what you decide to wear on the day.

[Nope]

I agree, that is basically all it is. It doesn't make the relationship magically any better, nor any more likely to work out.

I think the reason some people are so frightened of the idea of gays getting married is that they think this will "validate" gays as their equal. They want marriage to be their exclusive club, and the inferior sub species should be kept out of it. Well, too bad. That is your problem, and it's based on nothing but bigotry. It's way past time everyone had equal rights. Being gay should be of no more consequence than what you decide to wear on the day.

I never thought about it before but that makes a lot of sense.   It is about feeling special and not allowing a looked down up group to have rights that would make them equal. 

It aggravates me when people say that they 'don't believe in same sex marriage'. So? There are a lot of straight couples who I believe shouldn't have married because they are unsuited to one another. My opinion doesn't have any impact on whether they should be allowed to marry.

People forget that religion dictates only how the follower should act. Religious people can't dictate that people outside of their faith follow their rules. If you don't believe in same sex marriage then don't divorce your opposite sex spouse to marry someone  who shares your genitalia. Simple.