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Permalink Reply by Nick Guiza on July 6, 2011 at 1:18am

first thing we need to answer is why people actually get married for? To have kids, yes thats right. Now many of us will say, hows marriage and having kids make logic. Marriage is a social activity where as having kids is a biological one. I think our ancestors must have noticed  bonded parents are better  for all round development of their kids. I am not sure whether there is any research done in this area to signify the importance of  married parents for a kid. Well now to bring in the act of marriage into mainstream our predecessors must have used medium of religion. Eventually i think marriage has more to do with morality than religion similar to 7 sins  which have nothing to do with religion.

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Permalink Reply by James on July 6, 2011 at 7:56pm

When my wife and I got married we had no plans for kids, and this is still the case. Plus there are plenty out there with kids outside a marriage. Maybe to the uber religious, that may be a reason to get married. But I don't really feel like it is for most others. To me it's about love and commitment. Nothing more.

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Permalink Reply by Kairan Nierde on July 6, 2011 at 8:30pm

Yes, I was raised to believe that marriage was about love and commitment and I still believe that.  As a young catholic woman they tried to brainwash me into believing it was also the only venue for sex, reproduction, and parenthood.  Ah, religion.

 

As an adult, I see marriage has quite a few legal and social benefits too.

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Permalink Reply by Kairan Nierde on July 6, 2011 at 8:27pm

Wow.  Way to throw the single parents to the curbside.  And what about those of us who cannot or will not reproduce--we marry too!?

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Permalink Reply by Kevin on July 6, 2011 at 1:38am

Love is individual...symbolize it anyway you wish...no one individual or group holds anchor to its course, regardless of claim or social programming.

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Permalink Reply by Stephen Walski on July 6, 2011 at 3:00am

No one should participate in marriage.

 

Unless of course you look around at your life and are more than willing to part with half of your friends and belongings.

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Permalink Reply by Joe Rivera on July 6, 2011 at 7:39am

That's a very good question! I would be curious to know, what kind of marriage ceremony (and the vows, if any) are performed in an Atheists Marriage Ceremony? In particular, Sweden comes to mind, since I understand there are so many atheists there.

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Permalink Reply by Steve on July 6, 2011 at 8:29am

They can be fairly traditional and often mimic traditional church ceremonies for the most part. It's just that there aren't prayers and the vows don't mention god. Instead they are about the couple and what's important to them. Some may include some science bits. Poetry readings are popular. Some people including pagan elements like hand fasting, ring warming or candles.

 

Here are some atheist wedding vows:

http://friendlyatheist.com/2010/06/29/atheist-wedding-vows/

http://www.atheists.org/Wedding_Vows

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Permalink Reply by James on July 6, 2011 at 8:07pm

A secular ceremony is 100% up to the couple. You can mimic a religious ceramony or you can make it as fun or informal as you want. In ours, we played with the format some, rings (Celtic in design) at the very beginning at the back of the hall (medieval tradition) and walked her to the from, we had poetry readings, hand-fasting, vows of our own writing (I even made a touching/humorous mention of astronomy/nuclear fusion in mine) and selected our own music (came in to a slowish Celtic instrumental and left to the Carmen Overture).

No mention of god, no church, but still beautiful.

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Permalink Reply by Kairan Nierde on July 6, 2011 at 8:34pm

Sounds lovely!!!

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Permalink Reply by James on July 6, 2011 at 8:40pm

Thanks! :)

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Permalink Reply by Blake Buettner on July 6, 2011 at 10:19am

I'm getting married in a few months to an agnostic. We call it a celebration of our families coming together. The officiant used to be a major figure in the LBGT community and has told us there are only a few small things he must do legally to marry us, none of which are religious. We're getting married at the top of a hotel in San Francisco, and there will be zero mention of any god nor will there be any prayers. 

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