Vlad's laws of antitheism

[Walt Zingmatilder]

You suggested that you though the majority of people would think of their marriage as something more than just a legal arrangement. I pointed out that might say more about the sort of people that you know, as the majority of people that I know would see their marriage as a legal accompaniment to their relationship, and not some all-encompassing description of that relationship.

O.

So you think that I am suggesting the legal aspect of Marriage is like a musical lietmotif recurring at different times in the piece while you are suggesting it's more like the string section in a piece of music?

[Outrider]

So you think that I am suggesting the legal aspect of Marriage is like a musical lietmotif recurring at different times in the piece while you are suggesting it's more like the string section in a piece of music?

No, I'm suggesting that it's like the programme at the opera - for some people it's an integral part of the experience, but for others it's a relatively trivial add-on. Neither of them is definitively right, I guess, though some of them might get tribal about it.

O.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

Absolutely - and in many cases it makes no difference to the relationship per se as in most cases, I suspect, the couple will have been living together, having sex etc prior to getting married and after getting married. The relationship doesn't change but there is a new legal status and a formal public commitment to each other.

I thought that was what I was broadly saying. You seem to be confusing me with somebody who is given to saying that or this marriage isn't a proper marriage but that's what I'm accusing you of because as you've said, anything short of a state marriage isn't a marriage.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

No, I'm suggesting that it's like the programme at the opera - for some people it's an integral part of the experience, but for others it's a relatively trivial add-on. Neither of them is definitively right, I guess, though some of them might get tribal about it.

O.

Well I broadly agree with you.

[ProfessorDavey]

I thought that was what I was broadly saying. You seem to be confusing me with somebody who is given to saying that or this marriage isn't a proper marriage but that's what I'm accusing you of because as you've said, anything short of a state marriage isn't a marriage.

I think that the overwhelming position would be that if you aren't legally married then you aren't married. And that would be the position of both 'the state' as you might describe it, but also the individuals in that state.

I simply don't recognise this notion that you can not be legally married but are somehow considered still to be married. Being legally married and being married are, in my opinion, the same thing.