Is Marriage the Right Way?

Is Marriage the Right Way?

Most of us never really had a choice of how the world should be run. For example, on the question of whether we should marry instead of just procreating like animals do no one really asked us before passing the law, that only legalized marriages will be recognized. We see that for matters of rights, especially, marriage is an advantage.  In Singapore, couples who do not marry do not marry do not automatically inherit each others property nor can they claim anything from the Central Provident Fund (CPF) of a surviving partner. Another situation is that only married couples can be co-owners of Housing and Development Broad (HDB – a government housing scheme) homes. To save all this trouble it is important for couples to marry; the law has made it necessary.

Do people really have to marry in order to live as a couple? This can be argued but as the world in run today, it is certainly a disadvantage not to. From all religions point of view as well as our conservative society angle, living together without marriage is a big crime and unacceptable.  Marriage gives a bond strength; the couple is said to live honorably and their children are given due respect by others. On the practical side the spouses and the children stand to gain from the support given by the government to legal marriages. Furthermore it is morally correct by the standards of all organized religions.

On the issue of whether couples should be bound to each other permanently there are several advantages why they should. Children do not ask to be born but are brought into the world by their parents. Once couples becomes parents – whether they are married or not - they have now involved an innocent party into their world. Automatically it becomes their moral responsibility to give their children the best they can. Time and again it has been proven that children of divorce are traumatized. Man is one of the animals that take care of his young for many years. This is because his young need him for a long time. Since both parents are necessary for this, they are morally bound to stay together for the children’s sake. It is unethical for any one partner to want to run away from this responsibility.

The natural question that now rises is whether couples must stay together if their children are grown up or if the couple has no children. Looking at the practical side of things, we see that the need may be discussed. If the couple decides not to stay together after they have no joint responsibility and if they, for whatever reason, do not wish to stay together anymore, their marriage could be annulled. In other words, if there is no third party involved, there seems to be no practical reason for marriage to be a permanent institution.

Marriage life is a new life where people want to live more for their new family members!  Marriage is an institution and tendency of human couples to live together is something that we have evolved into. We are one of the few animals who do this.  Though man has been on earth for five millions years, it is only fairly recently that this ‘marriage’ is a rule rather than the exception. Obviously man has discovered that this is the best arrangement after a lot of trial and error. It makes no sense to want to go backward from our evolved state. Hence, in my opinion, people should marry and should live together permanently. Therefore, another name of marriage is commitment.