[breakem]

regarding the fertility test. It is sarcastically posited to show that reprduction is not the purpose of governmental sponsored marriage. The lack of a test and requirement to reproduce indicates a lack of seriousness about that goal. In fact many people seem to be reporducing without the benefit of governmental sanction.

This example is meant to counter the argument that marriage is for procreation and therefore homosexuals cannot get married. But infertile heterosexuals can do so.

[NutCrackerBoy]

You have not made any progress in convincing me, or, I would assume, anyone else, that reproduction, i.e. children, is irrelevant to the reason government has in the past regulated marriage and to the reason it continues to do so now.

Do you not look around you and see that children of stable families tend to be good citizens and produce stable families of their own? Does our relatively stable society not owe its success in great part to the fact that church, society, and government all were intolerant of the flouting of marriage norms?

[MEGoody]

"The lack of a test and requirement to reproduce indicates a lack of seriousness about that goal."

Not really. The reality is, the vast majority of hetero couples who marry have kids. Not a single homo couple can have children.

". In fact many people seem to be reporducing without the benefit of governmental sanction."

Yep, and look what a mess it makes when that occurs. It's always best to have children when there is a mommy and daddy who are committed to one another for life. Anything less facilitates maladjustment.