Marriage in our society

[Asmodean Prime]

For my project I am acquiring different perspectives on marriage. What your opinion of this question? Is marriage necessary/beneficial in our society today? What is your reason for having this opinion? Thank you. your input will be shared with a class of 12th grade students in the International Baccalaureate program at Vanguard High School in Ocala, FL, USA on March 15th 2007.

[Byrath]

Other. Marriage as a matter of law should be abolished. Let some other form of legal partnership take its place, and leave marriage as an optional ceremonial event.
I do feel that some for of legal union is necessary for tax fairness, shared bank accounts/mortgages/etc.

[Whitney]

I think the legal part of marriage should be defined as a civil union and be open to all adult reguardless of sexual orientation (this would make the religious people shut up about homosexual unions and marriage..basically we'd just be letting the religious claim the word marriage, which would be fine with me).  Couples who are married get some tax breaks, can make medical decisions for their spouse if he/she is unable, and some other things which make it benefitial.  The ceremony is pretty much already optional since the only legal requirement to be married is have a judge and witness who hear you exchange vows that can be as simple as declaring desires to marry (the "I do" part) and the judge signs the certificate.  I don't think marriage is necessary anymore but couples who plan on being together for a long time might as well get married to recieve the benefits of being legally recognized as a couple.  Marriage isn't necessary because society has become accepting of  sex without marriage, single parents, and even couples who aren't married.  And for those who like to argue that marriage is some sort of holy union and therefore is necessary....a 50+% divorce rate among the religious proves that it doesn't mean much to them.

[Simoli]

a 50+% divorce rate among the religious proves that it doesn't mean much to them.

Where did that come from?  I'm not doubting it but would like to see the rest of the breakdowns.

[Whitney]

a 50+% divorce rate among the religious proves that it doesn't mean much to them.

Where did that come from?  I'm not doubting it but would like to see the rest of the breakdowns.

I honestly have seen statistics which pointed to a 50% divorce rate; but all I could quickly find was this:  http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_dira.htm according to that article it's very possible that I was remembering something I heard on the news where they stated the projected rate rather than actual stats; so I was off by about 20% from what they gave:

Jews    30%
Born-again Christians    27%
Other Christians    24%
Atheists, Agnostics    21%

It looks like these stats are from about 7 years ago.