Marriage is no longer sacred.

[acturisme]

It was never meant to be a sacred institution anyway. It was a social convention. Religion only got involved later.

 

[Flames66]

Yay for generalizing! I wasn't aware that everyone must at some point get divorced, thank you for explaining that to me

This is as stupid as the threads complaining about women being heartless bitches and men being sex crazed douchebags.

Doesn't sound like you read the OP to me.

Personally, I think all marriages should be called civil partnerships, that way nobody feels left out.

 

[DarthAcerbus]

I said that not every marriage ends in divorce.

Considering there's only two ways for marriage to end, that's not saying much...

 

[IamLEAM1983]

You read that right. Marriage is an outdated tradition in modern day society. Divorce is a somewhat common thing today, and that's a shame and all that jazz. Now, I'm just going to come out and say this: When you get married, you vow to each other to be with each other until death do you part. Not until somebody better comes along, not until you get bored of one another; until you die. I understand people change and personality's are like rolling stones, but it's a rolling stone you chained yourself to, forever. At this point you maybe calling me old school and I need to get with the times, but this is where the whole sanctity of marriage thing people keep yammering on about comes into play. Marriage is a tradition, a tradition some people don't seem to grasp the concept of. I'm not calling you a bad person if you're divorced or anything, I'm just saying marriage, at this point in society, is no longer needed. I'm going to stop here and keep explaining as the thread continues

So... You're upset that the Disney-colored marriage we're all psychologically trained to want from infancy is actually a big fat lie?

Honestly, I'm happier in a world where people can make a mature, common decision after some years of honest effort and say "You know what? As much as I like you, it isn't working out. We can leave on good terms and if we have kids, that doesn't mean we'll shirk out responsibilities".

The alternative is the world my maternal grandparents lived in: fifty years of bitterness, interspersed with the requisite crotch dumpling, so as not to get the town's pastor on their case. Because *this* is what "until death" really meant, before the sixties.

If you learned you'd been married to a scumbag, you were done for. You'd have to lug that scumbag around for the rest of your life.

Marriage might be painted out to be some sort of sacred institution, but it really shouldn't be. Marriage is a decision shared by two hopefully mature and responsible individuals. If it doesn't work out, they should have the maturity and responsibility to call it off.

 

[Phlakes]

Join the club. I'm sure it's pretty big now, since people have been making this exact thread several thousand times since the internet began.

And no, marriage is not needed, but if we just got rid of everything that was unnecessary, you wouldn't even be here to make this thread in the first place.

 

[RagTagBand]

Not necessarily. Our vows didn't include any such thing.

(Also, born in 1996? Jesus. I literally have shoes older than you.)

HA, that got me laughing.

OT, Marriage is little more than entertainment, The legal framework is important and worthy of taking seriously but "Marriage" is mostly live theatre and creating an invisible "upper class" of relationships despite absolutely nothing demonstrable being different. Marriage also sets a ridiculous "Standard" to live up to - People are, patently, not meant to stay with the same person for extended periods of time. Half of all marriages end in divorce and I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that the remaining 50% are not swimming in romance and happiness.

I would not be surprised if half of the "good half" are still married for reasons which boil down to "Fuck it" (thanks louie)

"I'm too old now, so fuck it"
"We have kids, so fuck it"
"I can't be fucked with divorce, so fuck it"
"I'm not that unhappy, I can deal with it, so fuck it"
"I'd rather be unhappily married than unhappily single, so fuck it"


And this is anything but the limit of problems with marriage, the very EXISTENCE of marriage can make perfectly happy couples question their relationship, Shit like "Why hasn't he asked you to marry him yet?" comes up and now, even though literally nothing is wrong, a person can think something is wrong.

I could go on, for a long time, but i you get my point. I don't like "Marriage" as an institution.

Legal stuff is good and helpful, and sure throw yourself a party celebrating stating the fucking obvious. But the rest of it is guff.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Marriage is to the populace as the numbers 9 and 10 are to critics. Overused. You should save it for something/someone really special.

Hah!

On that, at least, I can agree. Now you'll have to excuse me, this thread is depressing me.

 

[The Funslinger]

snip

Well, personally I believe the act of marriage itself lost the last of its sacredness the day McDonald's invented McWeddings.

That said, I'm perfectly happy for people to go on getting married, so long as they don't treat it as a boyfriend/girlfriend, but we get a neat little ceremony.

I still believe the individual couple can make their marriage sacred. Something I fully intend to do.

 

[Westaway]

Marriage is pointless, I really see no point. Please, someone give a reason.

 

[orangeban]

People talk about how it's not a good thing when a divorce rate is high, and I would agree with that.

However, in these talks about high divorce rates being bad, it's assumed that a low divorce rate is very good. Which I don't necessarily agree with.

Because I don't think a low divorce rate means that more marriages are happy, I think it more likely means that people are staying in unhappy marriages.

I was in a debate recently where I was arguing against arranged marriages. The team in favour of arranged marriage stood up and said, "Arranged marriages have a low divorce rate, so they're good!".

My reply to this was that the low divorce rate demonstrated a problem actually, that people were unwilling to leave marriages where they were unhappy or, even worse, being abused.

So yeah, the number of divorces can't really be used as a measure of the "success" of marriage.

But onto the main point of the thread, is marriage still necessary? Well, I'm aromantic (I don't experience romantic attraction), so I have no intention of ever getting married. I don't really think the importance of marriage is that it's a tradition though, since marriage is generally completely changed every few generations. I'm in favour of marriage, purely because it helps us understand current and past society.

Edit: Though, when I think about it, an abandonment of marriage would say something about our culture.

I guess I really should be against marriage, it's very much tied up with sexism and the patriarchy and heteronormatism and all those fancy words, but I can't get that worked up about it. It's just a nice thing that some people do at the end of the day, people get all fussy about it but I'm not sure why.

 

[loc978]

Heh. Define sacred.
I say marriage is a religious institution, and should be treated exclusively as such. The biggest problem I see with it at this point is that governments recognize it as a legally binding contract. Remove that, and all you have left are people who stay together, and people who don't (and who whine about such, but what else is new?).

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

Marriage was never sacred. Nothing is sacred.

Marriage is a tradition that has simply changed. Is it necessary? I think that's a pointless thing to consider. Either people want it or they do not, that's all that matters. It can suit what people want for their lives or it might not, and they can decided what to do with it from there.

Pretty much that. To me it's an arbitrary and antediluvian institution, but to others it's a union that holds a lot of significence. If they want it, then they should be able to have it.

 

[Darknacht]

Marriage is pointless, I really see no point. Please, someone give a reason.

Its a legal thing there are lots of benefits to being married.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

Until the death separates you is only in Christianity. And marriage never was sacred.

 

[Ammutseba]

I didn't even bother reading what you had on your mind after I saw your avatar.

But that aside: marriage was originally about wealth and building alliances, and had nothing to do with anything sacred.

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

Currently divorce rates are going down and the better statistic to be using is divorces per thousand marriages. And I totally plan on spending the rest of my life with someone. I agree with many people here who say that sometimes people rush into relationships nobody involved was prepared for. Marriage will continue to exist as long as it remains the most practical system for society to promote, which seems to be something that won't change any time soon, at least not beyond its current state.