See, your arguing two 100% different things.

If your going to argue that two people love eachother and should therfore be given things, thats an issue for Relgion, and how our society recognizes those relgious practices.

If your going to argue that religion should not be affecting Government, and therefore civil marriages are seperate than religious marriages, then why does marriage exist? Why can't more than two people get married? Why can't I be married to two seperate people who are themselves not married to eachother?

I am not sure on everything but there are a few rights official marriage affords that common law doesnt. Common law is mainly only used after a couple has seperated and all that jazz.

You can be married to two people who were not married to eachother, Daganev. You just need to divorce one of them, first.

Am I totally missing something because I have -no- idea what your argument is Daganev

People equate marriage these days with religion when they have nothing to do with each other (other than getting married in a church) Therefore when it comes to marriage peoples religious beliefs get involved. They see marriage as a union between a man and a woman before the eyes of God rather than two people who love each other and all that.

As far as polygamy goes. I dont know why thats illegal. The bible doesnt say its wrong and as far as I know no other religion does...

I don't understand what you mean.

Who says they have to go anywhere else?

As far as I know, we are discussing the act of getting married via going to the city council building, spending some obsene amount of money, and writing your name on a card and then perhaps going to the court and getting your name changed.

That process has nothing to do with love, and has nothing to do with sexual orientation. Off the top of my head I'm guessing we have the following list of poeple who can not get married to eachother.
1. Sibling to Sibling
2. Child to Parent
3. Person to someone who is allready currently in a marriage
4. Man to Man or Woman to Woman
5. Person under the age of 18 to person over the age of 18

Why are we only disgussing changing the laws as it applies to group 4?

There is no such thing as a civil marriage or a religious marriage in the United States. The government is the sole party granted the authority to dictate who is and who is not able to be married as per the law.

Furthermore, the question you have presented is something that was addressed to the Supreme Court to argue against inter-racial marriage. The government affords special rights to married COUPLES.

If you are trying to argue you should be able to marry more than one person and achieve the same rights, that's an entirely unrelated argument to gay marriage, which seeks to grant equal rights to gay persons.

All the females revolted when told they couldn't have 3 or 4 husbands all to themselves.

Why do we allow inter racial marriage? The same argument could have been used against it.

Your correct that the bible says its ok, you are not correct that no religions say its wrong. Many religions won't allow it in the modern era.

I have my own theories as to what the purpose of civil marriage is, but I don't know for sure, nor have I been able to find anyone who knows. The problem however is, nobody is willing to debate or discuss that issue.

Because the list used to be a lot longer..

6. Slaves couldnt marry
7. Interracial marriage


I am sure there are more... my musles hurt to much to look them up (YAY for working out!)

GASP! polygamist!
i've a friend who had 3 boyfriends in one day, i was calling her that for about a week.
quite amusing.
i'm for polygamism(/whatever the word for multiple husbands is), although i'd never practice it myself.
(and please, i do not wish to get into another debate with you people, so please do not debate me on that... i'm just stateing random things as ussual...)

Because there is no difference between a black man or a white man.

Whereever the concept of a single male would be discussed in the issue of marriage it would have to be legal for any male no matter what.

And polygamy is not a seperate issue from gay marriage. You wish to change the definition of marriage, yet will descriminate against the other 4 groups of people who are not allowed to get married and say that they don't count.

Tell me the difference.

Thats why I stated 'as far as I know'.

My sociology professor argued that the point of marriage issued by the government is to grant special recognition to parties that promote society and encourage growth and development in society.

Specifically, the idea that married couples were given special rights stems from the fact that when instituted, it was primarily married couples that raised children and as such created the growth and promotion of the society. The government sought to encourage this and by doing so gave special rights to married couples as a "bonus" to what they were doing.

However in 2005, he argued that these same things can be achieved by a gay couple as much as a straight couple... just as in the 1960s, the Supreme Court concluded that an interracial marriage could meet this criteria.

=====================================================

Why can't a father marry a daughter or a brother marry a sister? To be technical, they can in some states; however, the idea here is that incest is not good for a population or society. From a population genetic view point, it increase the allele frequency of certain diseases and in turn is bad for that population. For this reason, polydactyly is so common the royal family.

Daganev, after reading this thread, you should do political debates as stand up comedy.

You're fscking HILARIOUS.

You still can't marry a slave.

I didn't think about that to put into the list, but your right it should be there.

and interracial is not a categroy that can survive any scrutiny. There is as much difference between a black man and a white man as there is between a Ginger and Blondie. However there is a VERY clear difference between a man and a woman. I hope we can agree on that one. (I know there is a group of people who do not agree with that one and demand that any recognition of difference needs to be abolished.)

Someone over 18 can marry someone under 18 so long as it is within three years age difference.

There is a difference between a black man and white man. and thats the colour of their skin. Just as the only difference between a homosexual and a heterosexual is their sexual orientation.

However, the differences between a man and a woman are not what constitute the idea to praise civil marriages at least according to my sociology prof. What we are after is some type of arrangement that favors society.