XPost: alt.law-enforcement, alt.atheism, talk.politics.guns   
   XPost: alt.survival   
   From: me4guns@centurylink.removeme.this2.nospam.net   
      
   "Just Wondering"  wrote in message   
   news:542da30d$0$16413$882e7ee2@usenet-news.net...   
   > On 10/2/2014 5:34 AM, Alex W. wrote:   
   >> On Wed, 01 Oct 2014 16:06:58 -0500, Tom McDonald wrote:   
   >>   
   >>> Marriage is a cultural construct. I think the confusion, other than that   
   >>> resulting from religious beliefs, may come from the fact that babies are   
   >>> born to one woman, and the sperm donor per kid is one man. Even if the   
   >>> woman had more than one sex partner at the critical time, the child will   
   >>> be the result (except in the most unusual cases) of one man's sperm   
   >>> winning the race to the egg. Witness the observation that kids generally   
   >>> look something like each of their parents.   
   >>>   
   >>> When marriage is decoupled from procreation (as it is for all but the   
   >>> most fanatical, literalist, legalist religionist in the cases of the   
   >>> elderly and otherwise infertile marrying, as well as those who are   
   >>> childless by choice), then there is no logical barrier to any folks   
   >>> marrying. Although some groupings would seem to be both unwieldy and   
   >>> prone to internal strife.   
   >>   
   >> While I am absolutely in favour of removing all barriers to   
   >> any type of consensual marital arrangement as a matter of   
   >> principle, I am not entirely certain about your assertion   
   >> that there are no logical barriers.   
   >>   
   >> Social stability would be one realistic concern: unless a   
   >> very great deal of work goes into laying the groundwork and   
   >> all parties concerned know themseves and each other very   
   >> well indeed, polygamous arrangements would seem to me to be   
   >> potentially more unstable and at risk of fracture.   
   >>   
   >> In addition, polygamy by its very nature reduces the pool of   
   >> available candidates for those who remain unmarried.  This   
   >> most definitely creates social unrest, as can be seen in   
   >> China and India today where (for reasons of sex-selective   
   >> abortion) a surplus of unmarried and effectively unmarriable   
   >> men are causing serious social problems.   
   >>   
   > But you favor all consensual marital arrangements.  If that is so, and two   
   > women voluntarily consent to be married to one man, the premise that   
   > another man would remain unmarried is irrelevant.  The alternative is to   
   > force one of the women to give up the husband of her choosing in order to   
   > marry this other man even though she doesn't want him for a husband, or   
   > for both of them to remain unmarried.   
      
   Or maybe a woman will marry two men and overall the balance is maintained.   
      
   There seems to be an impression that a marriage will only exist of multiple   
   wives.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)