I just saw a search term, "My boyfriend says he doesn't believe in marriage", and it reminded me of when I was young. I don't know if we have any young people on this board, but the situation may still come up.
If one person believes in marriage and the other doesn't, what should the couple do? My first reaction is 'break up', because you know one or the other is always going to be unhappy/feel pressured, etc.
What would you do? And if it's nothing you can relate to, how would you advise a friend, or offspring?
I find it absurd that 2 people who are in love would break up over this. What else really matters at the end of the day, other than the 2 of you being in love with each other? Marriage doesn't make you more or less in love no matter how much you might think it does. And I say this as a proponent of marriage.
Because if you don't want it, you don't want it; you don't want it. And if the other party feels like you do, then the whole relationship is going to have this sword hanging over it. "Why won't you marry me?" "What's wrong with me?", etc. It's personalized as a rejection.
And if you're old enough, you've seen that couple that was together for 5-10 years, she finally ended it because it obviously "wasn't going anywhere", and he met and married someone else within the year.