Marriage??

And if they aren't religious? What is the benefit of a wedding otherwise, besides perhaps the legal benefits?

but signing a nuptial magically turns it into a "good choice"?

i'm really not getting the logic behind this.

It's a religious thing with me. I think if a man and woman who are romantically engaged live together, they should be married. I'm not going to sally forth and try and get my religious preferences enacted into law, so you needn't feel threatened or anything.

Adrian

Just out of curiosity, what's your opinion on civil ceremonies Adrian?

I'm not too fond of government being in the marrying business. Not exactly a venue they should be setting up shop in. Religious customs should be left to religious institutions. Take government out of marriage entirely.

As I've said before, it's just a religious preference of mine, doesn't mean I'm advocating jailing cohabiters or fining people. Just like two of my bosses are gay. It's not for me, but do I give a damn, do I treat them any different. Not at all. Long as you don't infringe on what I do, I don't care what you do.

Adrian

there is just something about marriage that appels to me!

ur standing there in front of someone, be it God, the Government, and ur swearing ur love to this one person for the rest of ur life, your going to love this women and no other,


yes u can live together and not get marriaed, but i just dont see the same affect!! u can leave the person, ach sure we were only going out, living together! meh, wasnt final!

i see marriage as the last stepping stone in a relationship, and the rest as something that leads up to marriage

Spot on!!!

I don't think wedding vows matter one way or another. If you end up living together and have kids, a divorce doesn't mean you have nothing to do with each other any more. You two will be equally involved with each other (minus the romance and sex - generally speaking - there are always exceptions) as you would be if you were never married to begin with.

I do realize that a lot of women have that fairy tale in their head - but I it really is just that. It doesn't prove or disprove love any more or less.

For me, marriage was more of a practical thing; he has a great last name, whereas mine sucked ass (which I ditched totally when I married him).

Glad that that great last name also involved a great guy, great sex and eventually, a great kiddo

I third that. Marriage is just a piece of paper and religion should have nothing to do with that. Mostly it's the married couples that have the problems, the couples that aren't married seem to be better off.

Ice

Come on - you should know better than that. Any relationship can have problems. In the long run any long term relationship would be similar whether by benefit of marriage or not.

For the record - I couldn't agree more about the piece of paper - it's not necessary. I got married back in 1968 because my husband's parents are very religious and they were very upset about us living together. In retrospect we need not have bothered. They still don't like the way we live our lives - and they never will.