Like many other religiously sanctioned practices, marriage has a practical social basis as well. From prehistoric times, a stable family unit provided for an efficient division of duties (e.g., hunting and child-rearing) that were necessary for survival. In later societies, marriage served as a legal basis for determining paternity and inheritance. More recently, it served as an incentive to provide a stable family structure for the protection and welfare of children.
Modernly, the significance of marriage has been diluted to a point approaching little more than a semi-religious anachronism. The State has decided that being raised within a stable nuclear family is a form of discriminatory privilege that must be suppressed in favor of a more egalitarian society. The ill effects of this policy are becoming more and more evident.
