marriagePeople marry for many reasons, including one or more of the following: legal, social, emotional, economical, spiritual, and religious
This is a wiki definition. They are putting the religion in the last place, but I have the feeling this is not quite real. I am interested in what importance to give it from an atheist point of view. I see the legal and economic relevance in today society, but how much of this concept is still related to the religion?
It very much depends on your local customs, importance of religion on daily life, and overall dominating religion in the area.
For example, in the Pacific Northwest of the United States (Washington State and Oregon State), religion isn’t as strongly experienced in the community as it is in the United States South. The reasons for getting married in Oregon, with a higher number of individuals claiming no religious affiliation, might simply be to secure legal rights and celebrate the permanence of a committed relationship; whereas, in the South, being married will grant you certain societal acceptability as well as fulfilling a religious expectation.
Unfortunately, there is no single, across the board answer to this, since each region has its own customs based on the local citizenry.
It depends on your personal beliefs. For religious people it may be important for religious reasons. Certainly in Islam a lot of importance is given to marriage, it is considered 'half of your faith', and especially on converts to Islam there's a lot of pressure to get married in order to 'fulfill the 2nd half of their faith' (and get locked in to a Muslim wedding, so they can no longer leave the religion easily).
For an atheist, marriage obviously doesn't have any religious value. It can be done either for cultural reasons, or to 'formally' get settled into a lifelong bond when you've met the right person. Civil Marriage ceremonies offer an alternative to traditional religious weddings with a priest.
The prohibition against plural marriage in most jurisdictions may be reflective of its religious roots.
It is my experience that in Spain a lot of people from educated, high-middle classes go through religious marriage just for the paraphernalia, romanticism and pizzazz that it (supposedly) entails, while not giving a damn about the religion behind it.
I’ve seen that happening in Australia too, but to a lesser degree. I don’t know if it happens anywhere else, although I would imagine so.
Would you say that this kind of marriage is religious? It is in form, but not in content. Ummm… complicated.
My marriage has zero religion. I am sure that marriage was hijacked by religion at some point. I took it back with a lovely out door service with my fiends. I asked a preacher friend to say a few words. Why not I thought we are all friends here and there are religious people attending. The preacher was great, he did not bring God into it as he know it was not our thing. I have huge respect for him not his beliefs.
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