Excellent article on history of marriage on Yahoo!

[dickthegrouch]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100815/sc_livescience/samesexmarriagedebatehasrootsgoingbackcenturies

"In the late 1700s, something disturbing happened to marriage in Western societies: It began to change. Young people had revolutionary new ideas about the institution and what it meant to them.

"People were terrified," said Stephanie Coontz, a historian at The Evergreen State College in Washington and author of "Marriage, A History" (Viking Adult, 2005). "Social conservatives of the day said, 'Oh my gosh, you're going to have the wrong people getting married.'"

The radical idea that had everyone so worried? The notion that people should marry for love, rather than for individual power, group survival, or any of a host of other historic reasons to bond.

Marriage survived, and so did society."

Edited to add teaser.

The comments quickly devolved into a hate fest though.

[ensho]

1. marriage was a male invention going back way before the 1700s

nt

[daleanime]

3. Well, duh...

who benefits the most in a male/female marriage? Unmarried men die much quicker, I think it's around 2+ years faster, but could be mistaken about the amount of time.

[greeneyedboy]

2. words to live by: never ever read the comments on a mainstream news site n/t

[Rowdyboy]

4. Very interesting read....

Thanks for the link!

[joeybee12]

5. That's not true, marriage has been consistent throughout history, one man and one woman...

...it has never ever ever changed and now the evil homersexuals what to change what God created at the beginning of time!!!!

:sarcasm:

[beyurslf]

6. No, no, no. This can't be true. NOM says that

radically redefining marriage changes what that union has meant for 1000's of years. And NOM can't be wrong. :)