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Originally Posted by tacoma  Would you please do so because I have asked this simple question to literally hundreds of theists over the past few years and have never had a single one from priests to theologians to sunday school teachers give an answer.
For what secular reason should gay marriage be illegal?
I just want one consistently rational non-hypocrital reason and I`ll vote it down myself. |
It's rather simple, but much of what you will read here obscures the REAL argument, and I think that is the intent.
The reality is that from a secular point of view, the state does not "grant" marriage. What it does is tell you what it will recognize as marriage, which is why the hysterical arguments concerning "gay marriage" are pretty much irrelevant, because in most places in the USA, there is no such thing.
That said, the state will recognize marriage as being a ceremonial set of vows between a man and a woman performed by a judge, a ship's captain, or a recognized minister of a legitimate church.
Despite the histrionics posted by certain posters here, marriage between a man and a woman (preferably the biological parents of the offspring) is and has been the optimum situation for raising children in the western world for thousands of years.
Now, I know that there is at least one exception to every rule, but we are not talking about the exception, we are talking about the rule.
It is in the state's best interest to foster a situation where the next generation of soldiers, citizens, and taxpayers will come from, and they nurture heterosexual marriage for just that reason. Why? Because it WORKS, more often than not, and it has for (once again) thousands of years.
If any experimental version of marriage is granted the same status as the ideal, then, like any counterfeit, the copy devalues the original, as more and more copies are made. More copies such as homosexual marriage, polygamy, and although bestiality is probably a stretch, almost nothing would surprise me these days.
If being married is nothing special, then why bother getting married at all, and people will drift from relationship to relationship, based on feelings, not commitment. You can see this happening now in the inner city, where marriage is cheap or non-existent.
Logical people know that the nebulous word "love" is based in commitment and not feelings, since feelings are notoriously unreliable, and you people prove it on these forums every day.
And that's what this little experiment is - nothing more than a thought excercise based on the "feeling" that 2% of the population should be able to rewrite civil law over the objection of the majority, which is idiotic on it's face as it is.
The single most profound statement I have heard in recent times was in a movie called "The Incredibles", where the villian is heard saying that "when everything is special, nothing is".
The state defeats it's own purpose by devaluing the institution that will bring forth it's citizens, soldiers, and taxpayers. Now I know someone is going to respond hysterically with "that doesn't devalue YOUR marriage" but again, you need look no farther than the inner city, where marriage has been devalued for years, with it's 70% illigitimacy rate. (Look it up yourself)
And the people who will cause this problem will expect us to let them "fix" it.
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Re: What is so terrible about gay marriage? 
