Only a liberal atheist could say something like this in response to my comment. I said "You might regret any decision you make". How is this speaking for others? It is a general statement. I guess it contradicts the liberal atheist position of "you will regret any decision you make that isn't consistent with liberal atheism". Well excuse me.
Marriage is neither consistent nor is it inconsistent with atheism. Atheism is simply someone who does not believe in any type or religion and the similarities stop there. You can't define Atheism past that. To say anything is consistent in Atheism shows you do not understand what it is. An Atheist can be liberal, conservative, both or neither...
There are plenty of species that pair bond, especially birds. In these cases, the male mate-guards while other males try to have sex with the mated females. This is a natural conflict in pair bonding species. How should it be resolved? Most males in these species value mate guarding more than adultery (getting other bonded females) but it is difficult for them to implement completely successful mate guarding. We humans have a distinct advantage because we (males) can cooperatively mate guard which is extremely effective. And this is what all successful cultures in history have done. Note that the critical issue is female sexual fidelity, not male. This is well understood in the Old Testament where the commandment "Do not commit adultery" clearly meant not to have sex with another man's wife. There is no command in the Old Testament that a man should be sexually faithful to his wife. Neither is there a command against prostitution which is the civilized means of satisfying man's natural desire for sexual diversity.
If you look at many of our closest relatives they do not do this. There is a reason why many men prefer the single life, and that is because it is natural. We are built to mate and expand our species. I don't advocate we just allow it to run rampant, but I am not going to sit here and say that it's natural to be with one person your entire life. Can you honestly say that you have never gotten aroused by more than 1 woman in your life? If not, then that should tell you something. There is a reason why nature gave us the ability to be attracted at will, and sometimes against our will, to other women. Because we are meant to mate with as many attractive women as possible.. and women act as the selectors, selecting the strongest and fittest males to pass on good genes to the next generation. Those who are weak are meant to die or not reproduce. Its all natural and has nothing to do with any kind of god.
Western societies are an extreme case. But the average man in any societ must play games to get free casual sex. The reason that men here don't need to do this in poor countries is because of their high status there. Those here who are having free casual sex in poor countries are doing so at the expense (lost sex) of lower status men in that society.
Yes, but there is a vast difference in the games to be played in order to win a female over in the U.S. and in the P.I. even by the locals in both countries.
More liberal atheist bias like in #1. I haven't bashed anyone for being single. It's true that I would prefer to live in a monogamous society, but I really don't care what people do in the outside world. Winston started this thread attacking marriage and I responded only to say that marriage is a legitimate option.
Exactly, you would prefer to live in a monogamous society. Meaning, you believe everyone should be monogamous. Which is completely unnatural. That is why there is not a human society on earth that is monogamous. Give me an example of any culture that consists of more than a few thousand people where every individual is monogamous.
I agree, and decent people should take back Marriage away from the government and away from corrupt churches and make marriage mean what it originally meant.
I agree, the only reason to get married is for legal reasons such as immigration / tax deductions.. Otherwise, I would be perfectly fine with simply living with someone for a long period of time.
There has never been a society where marriage has been successful. Every society has had sizable divorce rates or separation rates.
I haven't been to the Philippines but I have traveled extensively. The poor countries are dysfunctional because they haven't had stable marriage for a long time (or because they have polygamy). The rich countries are rich because they had stable marriages until quite recently. So you, as an individual, can take advantage of poor countries to get a lot of sex. And I don't condemn this as long as you are honest with yourself and understand that you are being hedonistic at the expense of other men in those countries. But I do want to point out that marriage in a moral culture is another option to consider.
I disagree. I believe the rich countries are disfunctional. People were not meant to work in an office for 40+ hours a week. We were not meant to be stuck to one person our entire life. A moral culture is a strictly regulated and designed culture by someone who decides what is moral and what is not. Many of these cultures base morality off of religion rather than what is actually right or wrong to do to someone.
Just to make clear my "religious" perspective, I am a Karaite who loves the Old Testament and I define God simply as the laws of nature. I do not believe in anything supernatural.
And this just does not make sense at all. You take something written by those who do believe in a deity and turn it in to your own belief system that does not resemble the authors intentions at all.
