Obsolescence of Marriage
A news headline point in the last couple days is a survey being summarized as saying people feel "marriage is becoming obsolete." Of course, there's a couple caveats to consider.
First, I don't trust any survey or poll in a vacuum. They can be made to say just about anything. There's not totally useless, but to be taken with a grain of salt.
Second, the long explanation I heard was not really an argument that marriage was or should be phased out. Rather that people were going into it later, having accomplished more. Rather than a mark of new adulthood, marriage is being seen more as something to do once you're established. So that headline is somewhat misleading.
But it got me thinking. What if marriage were removed as a secular institution?
That'd sure be one way to get the same-sex marriage issue out of the government's hair. Oh, there'd be work involved as we'd have to pull a lot of marriage-related laws and regulations (such as for joint ownership of property or visitation/inheritance rights) and adapt them for "partnerships," but they could apply to people regardless of gender, religion, or whatever else. Marriage could remain as a religious institution, defined by the various religions, and there's still be arguments there undoubtedly, but it'd be an internal matter for them to deal with instead of bleeding over into everything else.
I don't know... The idea appeals to me, but I'm probably not your average perspective. It seems like a fair and equitable way to go, but I'm pretty sure society won't evolve that way in my lifetime.
First, I don't trust any survey or poll in a vacuum. They can be made to say just about anything. There's not totally useless, but to be taken with a grain of salt.
Second, the long explanation I heard was not really an argument that marriage was or should be phased out. Rather that people were going into it later, having accomplished more. Rather than a mark of new adulthood, marriage is being seen more as something to do once you're established. So that headline is somewhat misleading.
But it got me thinking. What if marriage were removed as a secular institution?
That'd sure be one way to get the same-sex marriage issue out of the government's hair. Oh, there'd be work involved as we'd have to pull a lot of marriage-related laws and regulations (such as for joint ownership of property or visitation/inheritance rights) and adapt them for "partnerships," but they could apply to people regardless of gender, religion, or whatever else. Marriage could remain as a religious institution, defined by the various religions, and there's still be arguments there undoubtedly, but it'd be an internal matter for them to deal with instead of bleeding over into everything else.
I don't know... The idea appeals to me, but I'm probably not your average perspective. It seems like a fair and equitable way to go, but I'm pretty sure society won't evolve that way in my lifetime.
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