Why is it illegal to be a polygamist, but okay to have gay marriages?

I can't see where people are getting the idea that more than one wife is a bad thing... not that I'd do it.

Polygamy has a bad reputation because it's so often tied to brainwashing cults. There is nothing wrong with polygamy, in my opinion, between rational, consenting people. The same could be said for any kind of way one might want to live one's life, so long as it doesn't infringe on the rights of others.

Hmm. I forgot about the weird brainwashing that goes along with it. The local news is making a big deal about Warren Jeffs and how the polygamists here in Nevada are going to be hunted down and punished. I just feel like they (police) could be spending time hunting down worse people than those that have more than one wife.

THERE ARE NO WORSE PEOPLE!!!111!

hebebebebebebebedeeeebeeee

It's kind of sad this is turning into the next media sensation. I'm all for putting an end to dangerous cults, because they harm people. But most people are incapable of fathoming the difference between the act of polygamy and a sex-crazed maniac. Don't forget that many animals naturally practice polygamy. Who's to say it isn't natural, or at least an option to, humans? Worthless tradition, maybe.

Well, what If a guy married two girls, and one of those girls married two guys? That would be complicated and hurtful. Heck, how would you like it if your wife said, "Hey I'm going to marry another guy as well." Or visa versa. It's hurtful. People should just leave it alone. If you want make to new things and call it that, but it's stupid to think that making a law will change people's minds on the acceptability of different behaviors.

It's also stupid to consider a behavior unnacceptable solely because it's untraditional.

Polygamy also presents social problems in places where often the practice is carried out. In many of the polygamy-focused society, it isn't uncommon for the older men try to gain more "power" and authority by "marrying" many of the community's women, leaving the younger men at a significant loss over potential wives. Conflict between older and younger men has shown to turn so bad that the younger men are even "ostricized" from the community. The man who was just caught had 40 damn "wives."

Then the young man should practice polyandry and become a husband of an infuential woman.

Funny, I never seen a relationship where one woman has more than one husband. I've always heard of man with many women.

On a slightly related note, when one person thinks of a threesome, it usually involves 2 women and 1 guy.

Or 3 women.

2 men would make for a sandwich situation. I know some guys who did that. haha

It's also stupid to read a sentence and somehow completely miss the meaning of it entirely.

That's because women aren't allowed to have more than one husband. Welcome to Christianity 101: Women belong at home, or at a nunery.

Personally, I think polygamy is wrong and incredibly sexist. It's one of the many reasons why I left the mormon church.

It's illegal because people might get hurt. Might wanna look into that "driving" thing there

Seriously, it's probably illegal for taxation reasons. I couldn't imagine the number of tax loopholes you could make with polygamy reasons. That and fundies fundies lol

Actually, a lot of the problems with the mormon splinter groups that still practice polygamy (The mormon church renounced polygamy a century ago) isn't that they marry many wives, but that they marry thirteen year olds.

The way I see it, Bob and Rich should be able to get married, and I should be allowed to marry the Brooks twins down the street. Of course, the Brooks twins are 25, and that's each, not combined.

And marrying thirteen-year-olds isn't necessarily "wrong," it's just taboo in contemporary society. Thirteen-year-olds got married often (and to older men) depending on the time and the culture.

This thread deserves a :ninja:, because most of everyone here is leaving out some information

...

Comparing any current day 13 year old to one from a few hundred years ago is an effort in extreme futility. Not only that, but just because it happened doesn't mean it was right.

I mean honestly, people used to persecute jews for no reason whatsoever. Just look at the Spanish Inquisition. Doesn't mean it's wrong, just that it's taboo!

I never said it was right.

Besides, right and wrong don't hold a lot of meaning, since they are highly subjective.

Oh don't start that stupid bull**** with me.

That stupidity is the only thing I hated about mort. "RIGHT HOLDS NO MEANING, STALIN WAS A GREAT MAN IN HIS OWN MIND HE WAS DOING WHAT WAS RIGHT BLAH BLAH ETC".

Yeah, I know right and wrong are subjective, but not "highly subjective". There's limits.

I loved that about Mort. He always brought an interesting, often unique perspective to any conversation. Often it was something that all of us had failed to even consider. And even if he may have gone overboard at times, there was a certain enthralling logic to it all. I wish he'd come back.

It's not that we didn't consider it, it's that we considered it retarded. Because it was.

Moral Relativity is to Real World Ethics as Friend14 is to fyzikslolar.

[QUOTE=Dj Yoshi]It's not that we didn't consider it, it's that we considered it retarded. Because it was.

Moral Relativity is to Real World Ethics as Friend14 is to fyzikslolar.[/QUOTE]

Pray tell, what do Real World Ethics[sup]TM[/sup] consist of?

Kinda self-explanatory. Real world...ethics? Need me to point you to a dictionary?

No.. I need you to point yourself to a mental health professional, and pronto.

What? What the **** does my mental health (which you can gauge over the intarweb? LOLAR) have to do with anything?

Real world ethics are ethics that apply to the real world. Such as murder is bad, etc. I should have hoped as much was obvious.

Who cares.

Polygamy is quite mega-sexist, though.

It's easy to say "murder is wrong lol" without even understanding why. Everyone just accepts that it is so because society violently stamps that notion into them. I think it's beneficial to actually go deeper and analyze why murder is actually "wrong," whatever that means. Wrong as in "decreases order in our society" perhaps. That's what most people mean when they say "wrong" when they're talking about murder. If people started murdering people left and right, they say, everyone would be afraid to go out and no one would interact with each other. Society would fall apart.

Ultimately I think that idea scares them much more than any other kind of "wrong." Another sort of "wrong" that people might consider murder to be is that each human has some sort of "mission" to fulfill and by murdering a human being, you are prematurely ending their mission, and that is somehow undesirable (for the dead person perhaps? Or maybe society at large?)

Further still, people might mean each person has the "right" to live, and to deny someone that "right" is "wrong." And by wrong, I mean undesirable, and to whom, I suppose the murdered individual, even though he or she can't experience undesirability toward actions taken against him or her.

Or perhaps, people think murder is wrong because they follow the "Golden Rule": do unto others as you would have them do unto you. But they make the assumption that the murdered individual did not want to be murdered. They also make the mistaken assumption that not following the golden rule is somehow "wrong," or what they most likely mean, undesirable toward a certain individual or group.

Still yet, some people might consider the act of murder "wrong" because their religion tells them not to murder. Nevermind that most religions don't offer any insight as to why the act of murder is wrong, (because the word WHY in religion is extremely taboo - try it sometime and watch the reactions you get). They just assume that because they are forbidden to do something by "god" that it must be wrong. Yet god murdered millions.

No one asks WHY nearly enough. You might find something out about yourself if you actually start from square one and ask yourself why? Dump everything you've been taught by society about the morality of murder and objectively and logically analyze what the morality of murder means to yourself.

Frankly, I accept none of the above explanations. One man's treasure is another's trash. Depending on a person's framework, or belief system, or perspective (whatever you want to call it), murder could be either glorious or reviled. By murdering, they could experience a range of emotions from severe remorse to genuine compassion - all depending on their beliefs about murder. Therefore, murder cannot be labelled wrong nor right, because those questions can only be answered on for each individual belief systems, and each person has a different belief system.

Okay, mr. rapist.

...and that, kids, is why we don't talk about uncle Freelancer anymore.

I like how it's supposed to be handled in Islam. There a man may only take another wife is he's able to support her. That doesn't only mean that he has to be rich, he also has to be able to support every one of his wifes emotionally.
Though if that works is another question...

This thread makes me think of a wifebeater with a punching bag for each day of the week.

[QUOTE=Dj Yoshi]It's illegal because people might get hurt. Might wanna look into that "driving" thing there

Seriously, it's probably illegal for taxation reasons. I couldn't imagine the number of tax loopholes you could make with polygamy reasons. That and fundies fundies lol[/QUOTE]
Well for one thing I could quite easily see unscrupulous people becoming immigration farms, marrying women for a fee to let them live in the US legally. I can imagine an interview with the guy "Yeah I've got 442 wives at this current point in time. I've given up on remembering all their names so I just call them all Esposita"

Then there's the awkwardness if we assume it doesn't have to have to be one guy marrying multiple women. In which case if a polygamous marriage already existed, would someone have to marry into the whole crowd or just certain individual(s)?

And then there's polygamous divorce. Can you imagine if all 40 of Warren Jeffs wives filed for divorce? They'd leave the guy penniless!
Waaaaait that's actually a good idea!

You mean if the marriage was acknowledged by the courts...

Okay so maybe not in the actual current case of Warren Jeffs, but if polygamy were legal, the implications of divorce would be complicated to say the least, surely?

Eh, you could treat them like horses and just take them out back with an '06 when they're done with their career.

Technically speaking, polygyny or polyandry exclusively would be sexist, but allowing all polygamy wouldn't be.

"I'm cool and smart because I go into the metaphysical."

Sorry. Eh. Wrong.

Murder is wrong, through and through, and if you don't accept it, I'll be happy to see you behind jailbars and out of the public life for good.

Moral Relativity is bull****.

Right and wrong are largely guided by moral relativism, but not on an individualistic scale. What was right for society 100 years ago isn't right for it now, and likely won't be right for it 100 years from now. Times change and definitions do with it.