Quote Originally Posted by miotas View Post
Actually marriage as we know it is a fairly recent invention, until a few hundred years ago, a marriage was an entirely private affair. No recognition was required from the state or church, a marriage simply involved two people saying they would marry each other. I can see where you are coming from that returning to this state of affairs would be better, perhaps having the only government involvement being a simple acknowledgment that the two people are now kin.

Of course my knowledge is only limited to a "western" viewpoint, I have no idea how the rest of the world went about things.
That institution was based on the principle that two Christians will be bound by their word - there is a whole body of canon Law about it. Prior to the advent of Christianity the various pagan City-State religions sanctified marriage. So it has been, from inception, bound up with religion.