Nostr Web Client

What’s your argument for why that is?

There are lots, but the simplest one is that children come from marriage, and statistically having a father and a mother is clearly the best outcome for kids. Unmarried couples are far less likely to stay together. Patterns of promiscuity pre-marriage, plus a culture that doesn't value faithfulness (i.e., porn, no-fault divorce, etc) surrounding a marriage make it harder to stay together long term. Divorce teaches children to fear commitment, perpetuating the problem.

This podcast is heckin' good on the topic: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/katy-faust-our-childrens-forgotten-rights/id1547129171?i=1000608655471

Reply to this note

Please Login to reply.

Discussion

HoloKat 2y ago

Would you say there were time periods and depending on the culture, where marriage was not foundational to society? Did Celtic or Germanic tribes have the same prevalence of marriage as the periods that followed? I would guess not? Maybe the same goes for indigenous cultures?

I do believe marriage has played an important role in civilizational advancement, but was it truly foundational? In fact, is it not more likely that first civilizations knew nothing of the marriage concept?

hodlbod 2y ago

I don't think there is a time or place where marriage is not normative. There have been many where marriage was not practiced, but how many of those societies reached technological, cultural, or philosophical greatness? Could they have done better if they had honored marriage? Even ancient high cultures which had all kinds of other problems like slavery, pedophilia, polygamy, etc held marriage in esteem, at least among the upper classes.

As far as the earliest cultures not practicing it, there's evidence for marriage in ancient Mesopotamia, and quoting from ancient scripture, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'?" God made the world with a pattern to be followed, deviate from it at your own risk.

hodlbod 2y ago

Oh, and I did say civilization, not society. That's a much less speculative argument to make.

Frodo.Web3 2y ago

Yes, and how long did those civilizations without marriage as the foundation last?