Election Thread

[Jester]

Not quite. The thing we know is that Atheists would not subscribe to the notion of a spiritual union. If marriage is defined as a spiritual union between a man and a women, then it is inconsistent with atheistic philosophy. My point. The theists define marriage that way. So, for them, it is outrageous for the secular world to try to redefine a sacrament to include things that are inconsistent with religious doctrine.

Would then each religion consider marriages from other religions, whose spiritual "powers" they have no acceptance of, to be marriages?

I would contend they do, by and large. Marriage is a cultural institution first, and then a religious or secular one.

If all you're saying is that there exists a certain class of people who define marriage as the spiritual bond, and *only* the spiritual bond, between people, then I'd agree with you.

If you're saying that all theists see it that way, or that atheists should renounce the concept of marriage on that basis, I'd disagree. I say that's far too narrow a definition to be either philosophically or historically tenable. Extremists aside, people understand marriage as a worldly concept, as well as a spiritual one.

-Jester