Question about marriage and religion?

Question

Ok, I have seen several questions now about marriage having nothing to do with religion. "why can't gays be married, don't mention religion in your answer", "why don't others know about civil marriage, it has nothing to do with church", etc.

MY QUESTIONS:
Does anyone know the origin of marriage?
Without belief in God, why get married? Is it just for tax deduction?
God introduced marriage in the Old Testament, that is the one concept that seems to have made it through all of the other break-offs and distortions into other religions. Every religion has a stance on marriage, so that being said, how does marriage NOT have something to do with religion?

Please clear this up for me.

You obviously missed the question. I just told you where marriage originated from. I need you to clarify why get married if you don't acknowledge the origin of marriage?

Seattlefan, do you ever leave Seattle?
The people of the Old Testament weren't "christian" as you know them today. The Christ had not yet come. Marriage started with the first two humans that were created, does Buddhism or Hinduism come before that?

Answer 1

You have a good answer here already so I want to just add a comment to some of the ridiculous answerers in here who try to say such ignorant things about other religions and what not. Marriage was invented by God and was distorted by Satan. Just like the Church was started by God and was distorted by Satan. Just like sex was invented by God and was distorted by Satan. Just like the Sabbath was started by God and was distorted by Satan. Just like Freedom and Choice were started by God and was removed by Satan....imagine how this World would be different everywhere if everyone suddenly acknowledged their Creator, and repented...then marriages would no longer end in divorce, or infidelity...the jails would be empty, the homosexual hang-outs would too...if people who claim to be Christian would live it instead of merely screaming it from the top of their lungs, it might paint a better picture of who God really is. You will know them by their fruits=you will know them by their lifestyle, attitude and actions.

Answer 2

I don't fully know about the Old Testament, but in a religion, such as Hinduism, God can be a Father or a Mother, and their marriage is also divine, thereby making marriage itself sacred. The literal and figurative interpretation of scripture will always carry different meanings for everyone. In some interpretations, actually living like divinities is the goal of human life. The gods are married, therefore people must strive to be married also. In another interpretation, aspects of human life, such as marriage can only represent [and NOT be unified with divine existence or can only be twice-removed from the source of divine experience or existence, thereby making it a representation and not the actuality of . . . ]divine union, therefore marriage must be held sacred, which scriptures try to do. Either way, marriage is looked upon as sacred or highly respected for religious life. Another interpretation may be for the ascetic among us -- religion is about creating a distance from carnal pleasures, therefore marriage will obviously compromise a person's spiritual development. Another interpretation is that marriage on earth never relates to any form of divine union, therefore it is immaterial whether we get married or not, because our life on the earth simply does not relate to our life in the being of God. Your perspective is what matters, in whatever religion you follow. Even within your chosen perspective, how sincere you are is difficult to admit.

Answer 3

Take DobiePG's answer and build on that. God is the one that saw the need for family units as the building foundation for society itself. The union of man and woman as the start of a family unit where adult behavior is taught and learned is the beginning of communities and society and nations.
You are correct to think that if there is no belief in God, then there is no need to worry about our interpersonal relationships except for the whole societal welfare angle. So if you don't believe God is involved in marriage, then you would have to look for the start of civilized society and see how marriage contributed to the orderly functioning of that society. Arguably you could claim that even the cavemen and cavewomen needed to pair off into couples in order to maintain and prosper as a clan.
For me, marriage began with God preparing Eve for Adam and has been the rule ever since.

Answer 4

I find your lack of intelligence, knowledge, and research disturbing. Marriage was thought of by man, not by god. You just proved this since the Old Testament was written by men. What is Buddhism's stance on marriage? What about the Wiccan religion? Zen? Taoism? You know so little, yet you speak as though you know everything about the origin of marriage. Marriage was practiced in Southeast Asia long before any Christians travelled there. I hope you are never a history major.

Answer 5

As you asked, I'll try not to answer you based on my own religious beliefs... look at marriage between a man and a woman as society's answer to not just procreation, but also to maintaining and nurturing that society. If a man and woman were to simply mate and then move on, there would be no family.

It could be easily argued that the family is the smallest building block of a culture. That's because a long term relationship between a man and a woman provides stability (and procreation) to a family unit - the building block of a society or culture. No other arrangement provides both that stability and the ability to produce children.

Answer 6

I do not know the source of marriage, but I could probably find out. As to why get married? Simple, marriage is a way to show each other and the world that this is the person I love. I chose this person as my life long mate. I chose this person as a part of me. There doesn't have to be any other reason then that.

Answer 7

I don't believe legal marriage is necessary. Legal marriage is just that...a legality. A true spiritual marriage, is a covenant between two people and God. A committment between two people. That is all it is. A comittment between two people.

Marriage was not a convenant until Rome decreed it to be in another attempt at controlling the people. In medieval times, weddings were conducted outside of the church, at the doorway.

As we know, there are many people who are married legally, but have no comittment to each other. And, there are those who are not married legally, but have been comitted to each for many years.

God recognizes the committment to each other, not the legal piece of paper.

Answer 8

Sorry honey, but people were getting "married" long before the bible was ever written, and the bible WAS written by MEN not any god, nor was it "inspired" by any god.
When most societies were invaded by militaristic Patriarchal tribes, a stricter order of commitment was imposed upon people.
Mainly in order to have some surety that the children borne by the "wife" belonged to her "husband", to determine paternity, in other words.
This is one of the reasons why in Judaism, lineage is traced through the mother. If the mother is Jewish, then so are the children. If the father is Jewish, but not the mother, then the children are not considered to be Jewish.
So put down your little bible honey, and look a little further back in to history and you will find that men and women formed families in one way or another with commitments usually called Handfasting, or called by other names in other cultures for many thousands of years before the bible was even thought of.

Answer 9

Religion does have something to do with marriage, but it was that upstart religion about 1000 years ago that said you could only have one wife. Prior to that, for several thousand years, men had multiple wives. Interesting that the church licensed all the brothels to the church so you could have all the sex you wanted, as long as it was in a church licensed brothel, but if you wanted to have sex with your wife it could only be for procreation, you couldn´t do it for fun, and you had to have a priest present. They used that to make enormous amounts of money in the brothels and control people at the same time. They are still trying to control people.

Answer 10

Marriage did not come from God.

It came from men, who believed that in order for a son to inherit his father's estates and property, that reliable, legal, written records should show the son was the literal, actual son of that particular father.

Simple, really.

It's been invested with false religious values to further religious ideals.