The Necessity of Marriage
The debate about what marriage is has flared up again United States and the lawmakers are confused on how to decide what it is. The populace is struggling with this "moral" issue and many people have come to both harsh and ingnorant views of what marriage should be. The problem is they've never asked the question of what marriage is or even better why we need it.

Let us begin by analyzing the need for marriage from a more basic viewpoint by focusing on the human species. What do we know about the human species?

•  There are two genders in the human species.
•  They have a long gestational period.
•  They live a significant portion of their life as a sub-adult.
•  Infants have very little instinctual knowledge and are virtually helpless.

Armed with this information we can conclude that there is a lot of care and time required to help a human develop from an infant to an adult. This creates a need for an adult to care for the children and teach them the basic information necessary to survive as an adult. This insures the continuation of the species.

A single female needs to give birth to at least 2 children for the population to maintain itself and since not all females can produce viable progeny, many will need to have more children to make up for this loss. The female is the primary provider of sustenence and care for infants and this dependency gradually fades as the child learns how to sustain itself. This dependency also weakens the female's ability to provide care and sustenence for herself. This creates a need for help from relatives and/or friends.

The male on the other hand only provides the catalyst to create the child, but his ability to provide for himself is not weakened by the dependency of the infant on the mother. As a result of this being his child, the male is the best choice to make up for the female's temporary loss of capacity.

Now to the social side of this examination. It will take, at the very least, 14 years before the child is able to function as an adult. Parents need to be responsible for the child during that time. They will also have a loss of ability to provide as a result of monitoring the child. This can also be made up by the family or friends. The conclusion is also that the natural parents for the child are the best choices to provide this care and supervision.

If the parents of the child cannot or will not care for the child the responsibility falls upon society (ie. all other humans including family and friends). How does society ensure that the most children are cared for and not a burden of society? Now we have gotten to the fudamental question behind the creation of the marriage contract.

The institution of marriage was created as a way to ensure that children would be cared for and that the lawmakers would not have the responsibility of care.

Go to the next section about the purpose of marriage.