Let us pretend for a moment that we are the architects of human civilization. God has created Adam, the first man, and Adam is lonely. God has thus given us Eve, the first woman, to keep Adam company. But let us pretend that he left us with purely the biology and the sociology was completely up to us.
So where do we go from here? How do we fill out our blank sheet of paper? Well, logically, if man was lonely, and woman was the answer, do we not want to give them some kind of long-term security? After all, what could is curing loneliness if it is replaced by a fear of loneliness because you do not know how long this relationship will last? So we will institute something called marriage, by which each partner commits to be with the other, for better or worse, until death.
Okay, but can anybody get married? Can two men or two women get married? Well, to answer that question, we have to look at the purpose of marriage. Is it just to provide relationship security? Can another man do as good a job of that as a woman for a man? Well, let’s think about that. A woman’s body physically compliments a man’s. A man is tough, rugged, physically strong, and able to provide in numerous ways for a family. A woman is nurturing, soft, gentle, compassionate, a natural teacher with the caring disposition of a nurse. It seems like putting a man and a woman together, gives them a unique and complimentary set of tools to use in meeting life’s challenges. We should seek to encourage as many of these male-female combinations as we can and in order to do that, we should set them apart. Thus marriage should be a designation only used for these desirable male-female combinations.
That is settled, but we have this other thorny problem to deal with. That is, we’ve started with Adam and Eve, but how do we keep the human race going? They need to reproduce. Well, biologically, only a man and a woman can produce children. Assuming many children enjoy knowing their fathers and mothers personally, if not growing up with them, then perhaps children should be part of marriage?
Okay, if children are part of marriage, if the husband and wife as part of their married life will naturally conceive of children, then the children have a stake in the marriage. You could even argue, that given children are the future, they may be the majority stakeholder in the marriage. Okay, so what do children need from this marriage?
Well, we don’t know if the children will be boys or girls until after they are born. I point this out because if we keep marriage to a man and a woman, then a child of either gender would have 1 parent of the same gender to serve as a role model and 1 parent of the opposite gender to balance them out. That seems ideal.
Now, we know biologically that it will take between 18-23 years for children to be ready to step out on their own. That is a long-time and we will need to be able to provide stability for the children. The key to any good mentoring relationship is trust. Fortunately, we have already covered that with the, “til’ death do you part” clause in marriage.
Children will need to be educated, oh, got that, the woman is naturally suited to the task and the man can also impart some wisdom. The children will need to learn how to manage a marriage and run a family of their own. Maybe we should develop some kind of internship or co-op program? Oh, wait, what am I thinking? By growing up in a functioning family, they will learn those things. Even if the parents don’t do everything exactly right, they can learn from those experiences as well.
Okay, I think we are all set. We marry Adam and Eve, a commitment for life. As part of living out that commitment they will most likely conceive children. Although, even should they not be able to, as already noted, there is great benefit in not needing to fear loneliness and knowing you have someone you can always count on (also reduces the number of home health aides we will need in society if people go ahead and double up in living accommodations).
Children will be provided for based on the complimentary pairing of a man and woman together (we will call them mom and dad to make the language more kid friendly). They will always be able to count on mom and dad, per the marriage commitment. Also, due the complimentary nature of the skillsets mom and dad possess as well as the 18-23 year apprenticeship the children will have, they should be well suited to run their own families.
I dare say, if we had to design a model for humanity, we have found the ideal. It just would have been nice if God had given us the right answer to begin with instead of forcing us to work through a century of gender bending, divorce, and gay marriage before arriving at this answer. Oh wait, that was our doing, not his, He did give us the right answer from the very beginning.
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