Alternatives to marriage
Published by Yazad Jal October 5th, 2004 in Atheism, Culture and SocietyOr how can I get married without invoking god or government?
Luckily Glen Whitman at Agoraphilia has an interesting post on the issue.
When it comes to marriage, what’s an atheist libertarian to do? What kind of ceremony is appropriate, and who ought to officiate? For an atheist, the obvious choice might appear to be a judge or justice-of-the-peace. But for a libertarian atheist, state idolatry is as objectionable as spiritual idolatry. Sure, libertarians recognize the existence of the state (while atheists do not recognize the existence of a god), but why go inviting the state into what is ultimately a personal commitment? And while many people, including libertarians, might choose to invoke the state’s contract-enforcement apparatus, that act is conceptually distinct from the act of wedding another person
BTW, in India (as most other places I assume) it is mandatory to get the marriage registered with the government.
A comment on the Agoraphilia post led me to the most interesting Alternatives to Marriage site which gives a lot of food for thought. Now all that’s left is convincing my girlfriend!
Why is marriage registration any more controversial than land registration?
There are several legal reasons why it makes sense for the state (or any other regulating entity pvt pr public I don’t care) to be involved.
1] Insurance - health, car, life - difficult to apply your health insurance to your partner if there is no legal document to say that it is in fact your partner. My company (and the health insurance agency) would have a blue-fit if I asked that my partner for the moment be on my insurance papers.
2] Visitiation Rights/Access to medical documents - only your legal partner can have rights to visit you in hospital and view your medical records and make decisions about your life if you’re incapicitated.
3] Child legal custody rights
4] Tax benefits
5] Home Ownership
…the list is endless - which is why Gay and Lesbian groups are fighting for the right to ‘legal’ marriage i.e. a union recognized by the state because of all the benefits they can get.
Why should an atheist libertarian choose to get married in the first place?
Why should an atheist libertarian choose to get married in the first place?
What is it about atheists or libertarians that we should be disqualified from getting married, Swati?
We may not consider it to be a religious union, but it’s certainly a social one.
Even an atheist libertarian should get married,
After all, happiness is not the only thing in life.
Well as I was telling you, Hindu (and I think Muslim too. Dunno about Christian) marriages don’t have to be registered. The obvious reason for this is that otherwise men will cheat their lovers by “marrying” them in temples and then denying that there was any marriage. I think the judge will just look at proof that some kind of ceremony took place according to Hindu rites. (Incidentally, I don’t think he will look too closely at whether the rites were correctly followed. If he does, he will find that Hindu scriptures talk of eight ways of marrying. The simplest ones are the Gandharva vivaha - which involves garlanding each other - and the Rakshasa vivaha - the simplest one of all- just living in. Obviously, the last one is disapproved of, but still considered valid marriage.)
Many hindus do register their marriage, sometimes as much as a month after the wedding. The registration is for purposes of record and they are considered to be married from the date of wedding, not the date of registration.
This seems about right to me.
After giving it further thought, I would contend that marriage is the ultimate cure for atheism. What’s more, the institution of the mother-in-law has keep atheism at bay all this while.
I need to find an atheist (or at least agnostic) future mother-in-law.
Well why would any woman let her daughter marry you unless she has a LOT of faith in God?
Or perhaps, after the daughter marries you, her mother might LOSE all faith in God!
:-P
To the pessimists, let me state that I have had an excellent rapport with the mothers of most of my girlfriends. Unfortunately none of them have been atheists.
And none of them are your mothers-in-law, yet.
I have had an excellent rapport with the mothers of most of my girlfriends.
Ex-girlfriends, you mean? :)
Yes Nitin, to-be-mothers-in-law if you must nitpick! ;-)
MadMan, not just ex. Includes current. :-D
Interestingly in the US - the gay community is demanding that the government get involved in their lives by sanctioning same-sex marriage. Interesting because you would assume that the gay community would not appreciate the government in their bedrooms. The demand is probably because of the enormous benefits that government sanctioned marriage offers including tax breaks, insurance, health care etc.