A good question to raise here. Many people do live together quite happily and never get married. My daughter and her boyfriend have lived together for the past 17 years and they are very happy together. People who live together and later separate do not have to pay extortionate legal fees. Of course, if you want a business relationship at the outset both parties can enter a prenuptial agreement.

Children.

That is why there is marriage law, it is because of children.

Religion co-opted marriages. They were originally created to make alliances between trives and merchants/traders. Such alliances also introduced new genetic material into a tribe, which at soem point ancients realized was beneficial.

As for why we need legal contracts to register relationships, it makes for much more stable families and communities. In today's society, if a person can just walk away, abdicating any responsibilities, it would create undo hardships.

Before gay marriage was legal, gay relationship didnt' last as long. Thsi wa mostly due to the fact that one person would simply walk away at any time, and so a simple spat could end up ending a relationship. Now that gay couples can marry, relationships are more stable, and a couple is more likely to endure hard times to come out on the other side, rather than just walk away, because divorce is too difficult to go through. Divorce is a deterrent that stabilizes relationships for everyone gay or straight. That in turn stabilizes society and the community at large.

It's all about evolution. It's in the male gene to want to spread their seed as wide and far as possible. Females at the very least are the ones that have the children, and if there's no father around given the burden of raising the children on their own. If you have a societal norm that says the father has to stay around and provide resources for the children , there is a better chance that the children will survive. Or maybe that's all bullshit, it's hard to say.

Hasn’t marriage always been about 1 thing? The ownership of women by men? The father “gives this woman” to the man. Ect.Etc.

The reasons are more biological than anything. We know of many species on this earth that have such one-on-one relationships with the other sex, and we also know o many that don't. Humans happens to be a species that does.

When I was dating my soon-to-be partner said she wanted to get married but I didn't care either way. Afterward she decided the marriage bit was silly. But in actuality, because of things like health care, property, investments it was invaluable.

A funny little story: One day we were in the famous Powel's bookstore in Portland, Or. and I had a list of books to get. She saw a book and laughed and said here's one for you (as a joke) I looked through it and it was one for me and was the most interesting and informative books I have ever read. It is titled "Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What it Means for Modern Relationships". There is another similar (but completely different) book "Bonk: the cu­ri­ous ­cou­pling of ­science and ­sex". This book will knock your socks off and absolutely amaze you. Written by Mary Roach (who also wrote "Stiff" ).

I'll let the extraenvironmdentalist do the talking for me.

[xenetwork.org]

The lines on that one have obviously blurred over the years… Seems we do need some legal means of addressing responsibility for children and property dispersal.. I’m not advocating marriage for my daughters, which likely describes my feelings on the subject ~

Well as our society developes so do the manipulators I've heard that both men and women would say and do things to get whatever they want. More recently (not picking on women) but their was this status on FB of a woman asking for peoples advice in having a child with another man since her husband was unable to get her pregnant. She said she wanted security for both her and her child so if she could convince him it was his she could get the court to atleast get her child support if he ever decided to leave her. Now if not for court than the truth would just be a rumor spread by whoever was liked more. I don't agree with the religious views of marriage but the support of the government that will not only try to find the truth but order the offender to repay the offended is something to be desired.

bluntly stated I think it is a breeding contract.

I personally think that marriage was created for the same reason there are two biblical commandments about not cheating.....The 15 year old dweeb that wrote the Bible got tired of all the cool kids stealing his girlfriends.

He thinks to himself, how do I stop this? Why do they keep leaving me? Is it my little “member” or social awkwardness?

No matter. I just created a commandment that says they cannot commit adultery or covet my wife. So if they do it again I will point out that they are going directly to hell. That’ll fix em.

And so I have just solved the mystery of who wrote the Bible and why. ????

I agree-married and divorced twice by 44, I opted for no marriage after that. Had a rocky ten year relationship-ended it eight years ago. One more relationship afer that ended after a year. The only reason to get married is to have children.

In order to legally take advantage of men?