Furthermore, you don't know if the traumatic effects of divorce outweigh the traumatic effects of having two parents who hate each other.
Either way, we're talking about the traumatic effects of two parents who can't act like adults.
Good is subjective. What you mean to say is that they aren't heading in the direction you want to see them go.
Yes. That is what I mean when I say "good". In my case, I'm saying that divorce and single parenthood are "bad" because they cause things I don't like, like juvenile delinquency, drug abuse, and teenage pregnancy.
I'm not talking about same sex marriage. I'm talking about traditional marriage.
So are you saying that they're not the same thing? Or are you saying that marriage now isn't the same thing as traditional marriage?
Because if the marriage we have
now isn't traditional marriage, I'm okay with that. Marriage isn't broken. People just aren't taking it seriously enough.
Hence the importance of day care.
Strangers are not parents. They do not have the same value, they cannot perform the same function, and they do not have nearly the same attachment.
There are trade offs. Calling it "not good" implies that it was bad that women obtained greater liberty. The freedom of one group of people usually comes at the cost of the freedom of another group of people. Women gained a great deal more freedom and as a result, men and children lost some.
Children are more important than men and women
combined because they develop into men and women and what hurts them impairs their development. Adults can suck it up; children get broken.
Similarly, if same sex marriage is legalized then religious folk lose a lot of their freedom to discriminate against gay people and therefore lose some of their religious liberty.
Not really. The homophobic religious folk could still discriminate against homosexuals just as much as they do now. Nobody's going to throw Phelps in jail or just put a bullet in him. Nobody's going to force churches to "serve" homosexuals-- it's not going to affect them at all. The people they're discriminating against are already going to different churches anyway.
Freedom and liberty are nice words, but they ultimately just translate to the power to do what you want and when the distribution of power changes, so does the structure of society.
Yes. And as much as I like to sound the horn for moral equivalence, some structures
don't work. They are unstable and they lead to collapse. Disintegrating family values is something that kills civilizations.
Many factors go into a life for children after divorce. Reading too much into statistic is as bad or worse than not having any numbers. There's a reason for the quote by Mark Twain: "There are lies, damn lies and statisitics."
And then there's people who won't admit to objective, verifiable facts because they're uncomfortable.
However, to add my own two cents. Marriage is a partnership. It requires physical attraction, shared goals, and respect for one another. I see nothing in a same sex union that should mean anything to traditional marriages. because it promotes long term parings and discourages promoscuity, everyone shold favor the inclusion of same sex couple into marriage IMHO.
Absolutely agree with you. Marriage is a vital social institution and everyone should be heavily encouraged to participate.