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The Forum > Article Comments > Love and marriage > Comments

Love and marriage : Comments

By Michael Thompson, published 14/12/2015

Is it logical that governments should facilitate marriage and help people to move on from a loving relationship to a married one?

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phanto

I think the point is, you don't need to define a marriage.

Historically the church and the state did it for their own reasons. The church did it because of its visceral horror of sexual relations in general, which they tried to restrict and restrain as much as possible: the conventional definition of marriage being the result.

And the state did it because people often make their property and equitable arrangements on the basis of marriage.

Seeing what a dog's breakfast the whole area has become - with the government doing its utmost to destroy and undermine it - I think we need to be doing the thought experiment of asking, what would happen if we ended governmental involvement.

Conceptually, there is no reason why the law of contract should not apply instead of any marriage law.
Posted by Jardine K. Jardine, Monday, 14 December 2015 6:48:26 PM
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JKJ:

I agree you don't need to define marriage unless you are trying to get out of it something which you hope it will give you such as equality. This is the wrong way to go about getting equality but the same-sex marriage lobby keep hoping that the government will remain involved so they have a measure of equality which they can point to. If the government says we are equal then we must be equal.
Posted by phanto, Monday, 14 December 2015 6:56:07 PM
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Michael,
You fail to recognise the importance of the nuclear family ( or institutionalised monogamy) as the basic building block of the Judo - Christian culture.
As an atheist I consider the nuclear family stands out from all the nonsense as the fundamental reason that that culture AND NO OTHER has produced the innovation and invention that has multiplied the productivity of human race by many thousand percent-- without which nine tenths of the world population would not exist today for lack of the means of producing , transporting and distributing the necessaries for feeding and sheltering them.

It is the nuclear family which provides the means of nurturing and educating children to the maximum of their potential. It is the maximum of potential which gives rise to the genius of invention and innovation.
TO fail to understand this is quite sad.

A procreation able couple should be able to register with the tax office a a single unit to be allowed to deduct from their combined income the reasonable cost of raising each child then split the combined income in half and be taxed at the rate applicable to the level of that half income.
Posted by Old Man, Tuesday, 15 December 2015 8:20:09 AM
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Old Man:

Is the Judeo-Christian culture the only one with institutionalised monogamy? Surely there are others and why have those cultures not developed to the same extent if such an institution is the cornerstone of such development?

Institutionalising personal relationships is not a sign of a mature culture. Freedom of association is the sign and one of our greatest values. Being free to choose where you live and with whom you live is a basic human freedom. To relinquish this freedom to any institution is a sign of personal weakness. Even if it could be shown that institutionalised relationships benefit the development of culture it does not follow that such benefits are of more value than freedom of association.

The building blocks of a good society are its values and if it does not value freedom of association then it is not really a society worth saving.
Posted by phanto, Tuesday, 15 December 2015 11:00:02 AM
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