|
Marriage is a certainly an idealized legal institute, with few entering the relationship expecting divorce statistics will one day apply to them. Of course this is not to say that there aren't long and happy marriages, but on the whole, does the evidence suggest that marriage is, at the risk of sounding wholly unromantic, rational?
|
|
New York has countless mosques, but recently a plan to build a large mosque and Islamic cultural center two blocks from Ground Zero has sparked controversy. Some conservatives want to ban the construction of the mosque, claiming its an insult to the people who died on September 11th, while libertarians tend to argue that religious freedom is a constitutional right.
|
|
In the wake of 9/11, many Muslims have outspokenly condemned violence in the name of their religion. However, critics of the faith, and critics of religion in general, have suggested that the faith can indeed breed extremism, and that many passages in the Koran, if taken literally, seem to even condone the slaughter of non-believers.
|
|
The more idealistic we are with our principles, the more vulnerable we are to hypocrisy. Should we be less idealistic to avoid being hypocrites, or should we hold onto our ideals, even if we can't always live up to them?
|
|
Many societies enforce laws that favor monogamous relationships, such as marriage; laws partly predicated on the assumption that monogamous relationships are natural. However, looking at different cultures and even different species prompts the question as to whether monogamy is so natural after all.
|
|
Would it be feasible for all of us to work a lot less, or is the concept a pipe-dream? Some suggest that by working less, we could increase our productivity per hour, and have a happier life. Others suggest that the idea is an economically naive socialist fantasy, and that although people complain about excessive work, it's ultimately a sacrifice people are prepared to make for, amongst other things, material wealth, status, and their children.
|
|
The benefits of creative thinking are frequently espoused, but is there actually a shortage of creativity in the world? Would we actually be better off if we were more creative, or are we already creative enough, or perhaps even too creative?
|
|
Scientific theories must make predictions that not only bolster the theory if the predictions come true, but also falsify the theory if the predictions turn out to be wrong. Some climate skeptics believe that the AGW hypothesis is impervious to falsification, short of waiting several decades to directly it, and pending that test, climate scientists and in particular climate modelers have boundless latitude to massage their theories and models to match what has become their pet hypothesis.
|
|
We often trust a scientific consensus, but is this rational? Contrarians often maintain consensus is irrelevant - and that the facts should speak for themselves. However, an assessment of the facts is not always as straightforward as the rhetorically inclined advocates on either side often insinuate. In such cases, is it rational to trust the consensus, or is there always a better way to rapidly assess the truth - short of becoming an expert one's self?
|
|
Over the last million years, temperature and CO2 have been highly correlated, but with CO2 lagging behind temperature by several hundred years. The mainstream explanation amongst climate scientists is that Earth's orbital changes initiated warmings and coolings, and a positive feedback between temperature and CO2 amplified those changes. However, many climate skeptics interpret the lag during this period as evidence that CO2 can only be the effect rather than the cause of temperature change.
|
|
|
Jane Austen
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters. -- Narrator, Pride and Prejudice.
|
|
Robin Hanson
The US FDA prohibits the alcohol industry from advertising these studies, showing the health benefits of alcohol, because the public might get the wrong impression. You do not have free speech in the US regarding health.
|
|
Bill Bennett
Hypocrisy is better than no standards at all.
|
|
George W. Bush
The union of a man and woman is the most enduring human institution, honoring -- honored and encouraged in all cultures and by every religious faith. Ages of experience have taught humanity that the commitment of a husband and wife to love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of children and the stability of society. Marriage cannot be severed from its cultural, religious and natural roots without weakening the good influence of society.
|
|
Bill Maher
I always compare marriage to communism. They're both institutions that don't conform to human nature, so you're going to end up with lying and hypocrisy.
|
|
Sam Schulman
True, many marriages promote loving intimacy and enduring fidelity, but that’s an outcome of the relationship itself – not the raison d’etre for the institution. In primordial terms, marriage only exists at all – in all of its permutations, pleasant or barbaric – because of the nature of human heterosexuality. As a species, we need to protect female sexuality in order to assure ourselves of a future. ... [Else a man] would turn her into a slave, a concubine – something less than fully human.
|
|
Laura Kipnis
And then there's the American mantra of the failing relationship: 'Good marriages take work!' When exactly did the rhetoric of the factory become the default language of coupledom? Is there really anyone to whom this is an attractive proposition, who, after spending all day on the job, wants to come home and work some more? Here's an interesting question: what's the gain to a society in promoting more work to an overworked population as a supposed solution to the travails of marital discontent?
|
|
The Catholic Church
The intimate community of life and love which constitutes the married state has been established by the Creator and endowed by him with its own proper laws. ... God himself is the author of marriage.
|
|
Roissy in DC
Marriage is a social mechanism designed to exchange sex for indentured servitude. So why are women now the eager instigators of divorce? What changed in the culture? Four things, primarily: the pill, easy divorce, women’s economic independence, and rigged laws that make divorce a good financial prospect for women. ... All the positive loving benefits you can get out of marriage can also be had within an unmarried relationship.
|
|
Frank Zindler
The discovery that humans, like chickens, had eggs, and that it was eggs fertilized by spermatozoa that developed into fetuses led to the notion that “life” began at conception (fertilization). ... In 1869 Pope Pius X reversed his church’s long-held view that the soul arrives in the fifth month of pregnancy and declared instead that the mystical woozit made its appearance at the moment of conception [whereby] Only god can make a soul, and only fertilized eggs can receive them.
|
|
