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But marriage is not a religious thing. Before most popular religions were created, marriage was already old. For cultural reasons, it's popular to do a RELIGI
by bighi 11y ago
But marriage is not a religious thing.
Before most popular religions were created, marriage was already old.
For cultural reasons, it's popular to do a RELIGIOUS CEREMONY along the marriage. What's religious there is the ceremony, not the marriage.
You can have religious ceremonies without marriage, and marriages without the religious ceremony. Two independent concepts that, by happenstance, often come together.
- wyager 11y agoEven if it's just a social ceremony, the government should not give it special legal allowance. The government doesn't recognize Quinceañeras or bar mitzvahs. If you believe that marriage has an important legal function, it's also not fair to preclude polygamists from getting those same legal utilities. A much better generalized solution is to expand the purview of contract law to allow it to do everything marriage does.
- bane 11y ago> bar mitzvahs The government does recognize a legal "coming of age" in several cases (at least in the U.S.). - Driving a car (restricted at 15 years and some months, open at 16) - Entering the Majority (18) - Can enter the military (18, or 17 with some restrictions) - Can have Sex (rules vary by state, but is generally 16-18 with various limits) - Can drink (21) etc. It just so happens that these legal coming-of-age points don't specifically align with any religious coming-of-age. The two are divested from each other due to various pre-existing cultural forces. But it's completely conceivable in some alternate universe that the two are conflated and one enters the majority legally at the same time as going through a "traditional" Sacrament of Confirmation.
- vacri 11y agoAt first I thought of it jokingly, but it is actually related - you can add to this list minimum age for politicians: representatives (25), senators (30), and potus (35). It doesn't affect many people, of course, but it is age-based freedoms implemented by the guv.
- millstone 11y agoPrivate contract law cannot enable foreigners to come live with their spouses in the US, or grant spousal testimony privilege in court.
- baddox 11y agoMarriage need not be a "government thing" in the modern sense, with all the legal distinctions we currently have. Marriage is inherently a legal thing, in the sense that it's a contract between people.
- pohl 11y agoState is a prerequisite for law, except in a libertarian's dorm-room fantasies.
- baddox 11y agoIt depends on your definitions. If you consider all legal systems to be "states," including primitive tribal ones, decentralized ones, etc., then yes, "state is a prerequisite for law" is a tautology. But today, "state" usually refers to a relatively large and relatively centralized organization governing a well-specified region that is recognized by other such states. Using that definition, a state is very clearly not a prerequisite for law.
- pohl 11y agoThe context that allows a system of laws to operate doesn't just spring forth spontaneously from a vacuum. Rather, it exists because we have a government based on the rule of law.
- aikah 11y agomarriage certainly predates Christianity. Therefore marriage shouldn't be associated with Christianity or Islam or whatever. Marriage is a social construct before being a religious one.
- swasheck 11y agoyou're conflating "Christianity" with "religion" though. it was addressed above but it bears repeating, social and religious constructs were inextricable in antiquity. the concept of separating them is fairly modern.