Bigamy is no longer a felony in Utah

[The Valkyrie]

Religious people at work


And what about polyandry?

There's never been any great occurrence nor demand for that in human mammalian culture, not by men anyway, due to the reality of internal fertilisation.

Well, these "certain religious groups" can all go and internally fertilise themselves.

[onlinebiker]

My only question is how the taxes and health benefits work with this.

Not all  polyamory is because of religion.

My question is why are we supporting marriage - a religious invention - in the first place?

So people can crank out more babies?


That's the PROBLEM motherfuckers -not the solution.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

My only question is how the taxes and health benefits work with this.

Not all  polyamory is because of religion.

My question is why are we supporting marriage - a religious invention - in the first place?

So people can crank out more babies?


That's the PROBLEM motherfuckers -not the solution.

You’re a grown lad - I’m sure you’re aware that marriage and breeding have only a nodding acquaintance.

Boru

[polymath257]

My only question is how the taxes and health benefits work with this.

Not all  polyamory is because of religion.

My question is why are we supporting marriage - a religious invention - in the first place?

So people can crank out more babies?


That's the PROBLEM motherfuckers -not the solution.

Well, secular marriage is a way to provide inheritance, rights to visitation, rights to property, and many other purely secular benefits.

Whether those benefits should exist at all is another question. But it is not, currently, a religious thing, but a secular thing.

[Rev. Rye]

What kind of whackjob woman would think that's a good deal?


Think about it guys - would you really want to hook up with a woman who is mentally deficient enough to go along with this sort of arrangement?

Someone who's been convinced it's what God wants? 

Okay, fun fact, this is, by virtually all accounts, the origins of Mormon polygamy:  Sometime in the 1830s, some of Joseph Smith's early followers caught him with his pants down with his teenage servant Fanny Alger. He took a different track than a lot of preachers in his situations would, and one that A) squared with the lives of many of the Old Testament patriarchs, and B) can be very conveniently justified by a religion whose leader claims God talks directly to him: he did it, but this was not adulterous. This was polygamous, and God told him this was okay. And because this would be controversial, it was actually kept hush-hush at first, to the extent that the riot that ended up killing him was prompted by a public disclosure of his polygamy. Of course, after Brigham Young took over, he decided to just publicly embrace it for the next 38 years. And, surprisingly, despite what all these cults might tell you, the doctrine was NEVER mandatory. At its peak, only about 1 in 4 adults were actually part of a polygamous marriage. 

As for why people'd just go along with it, Last Podcast on the Left has quite a few series on cults (like Aum Shinrikyo, The Children of God, Scientology, People's Temple, Mormonism itself, and Heaven's Gate) and they routinely explain why cult members go along with everything, no matter how bizarre or morally outrageous, and the answer is simple: if you're already in the cult, to leave is to question every decision you've made since you joined. And bear in mind, groups like these routinely start off with more accessible beliefs to attract new believers, and once they get settled, then they get into the weird shit. The Mormons actually have a name for it: "Milk before meat." Scientologists also use the term "Gradient" for the same concept, and I personally call it "using the thin edge of the wedge."

For a good illustration, watching Going Clear, I can remember their talking about the Xenu myth, and Hana Whitfield had two very different reactions to it. First, she thought, "wait a minute, I studied geology, these volcanoes LRH is describing didn't even exist 75 million years ago, when this story supposedly took place." But this didn't stop her from the second reaction: that since, even after she went Clear, she STILL had to deal with the Thetans who are just going to be with her more or less eternally, there was no point in going on. She almost jumped off the roof of Scientology's HQ, and she only decided against it because of the bad publicity.

And to go on further from it, Whitfield was also a member of the Sea Org. If you're not familiar with the Sea Org, they're described as the monastic order of Scientology, and live under what is probably just a notch above slavery (50 cents per hour at maximum, about 100 hours per week average). If the cult leader is doing his job properly, he's succeeded in turning the cult into a total institution. You've got minimal links to the outside world, and leaving becomes tantamount to being thrust into the outside world with no means of support, financial or otherwise. That becomes a damn good incentive to stay even if you haven't been totally brainwashed. And, of course, the cults that make it mandatory are forced to do this to their boys anyway just to make the whole thing work.

That said, some people actually can handle polyamory responsibly. They're just very rare.

[arewethereyet]

My question is why are we supporting marriage - a religious invention - in the first place?

So people can crank out more babies?


That's the PROBLEM motherfuckers -not the solution.

You’re a grown lad - I’m sure you’re aware that marriage and breeding have only a nodding acquaintance.

Boru

My grandmother had a slightly different way of saying this when speaking to my uncle:

Surely you know that marriage is not a prerequisite to pregnancy.

[Rev. Rye]

Same sex marriage is legal in Utah.  Does that mean a woman can have multiple wives or a man can have multiple husbands?

Or is this just for the Bible approved man plus multiple women?

Yes, outside of Paint Your Wagon, Mormon Polygamy is/was invariably one man with several women. And since the mainstream church is still Anti-gay, (although there's a significant hope that the President of the Church will have revelations akin to those that outlawed polygamy and allowed black people to join sometimes this decade), I don't hold out hope for the minor cults to accept homosexual plural marriage.

[The Architect Of Fate]

As a person in a polyamory relationship i have mixed feelings about this  

That said, some people actually can handle polyamory responsibly. They're just very rare.

Not as rare as you might think

[no one]

You shouldn't knock the everyday orgies. They're quite enjoyable.

[Rev. Rye]

As a person in a polyamory relationship i have mixed feelings about this  

That said, some people actually can handle polyamory responsibly. They're just very rare.

Not as rare as you might think

I think this depends on your definition of rare. If, say, 1% of people could handle it, that still leaves about 75 million in the whole world, over 3 million in the US alone, or maybe since you're from Ottawa (according to your profile), that could be a bit south of 10,000 for that city. I think it's safe to assume, regardless of the actual incidence, that being able to put the needs of several others above yourself in a loving relationship is not something the majority of people can pull off. It seems hard enough for just two people working together!