Gregory B Adams

And this is why when women have divorced friends, their likelihood of divorce actually rapidly increases.

It's for this reason.

Divorce is contagious.

So if it's the case that this social contagion is eliminated because now we have an ecclesiastical structure, an ecclesiastical authority, which won't grant it because you get ostracized from that social group through excommunication, for instance, or not being able to participate anymore with that community, that's an application of a serious and significant social pressure, which can do the very thing you want, bring back that great institution and

absent the state, and it avoids this whole problem of common law marriage.

Because if it's the case that you can be common law married anyway, inside of a state, and they can get grounds for divorce on that anyway, then we actually need to have some social pressures to prevent them from doing that.

So it sounds like we agree marriage is awesome for men.

Divorce is terrible for them.

So it seems like we should be attacking the divorce structure here.

And it doesn't seem like you actually have anything to do that.

other than just avoid the thing that's great for you because this other bad side effect could happen.

Sure, that's like smoking cigarettes.

So why don't we attack the bad side effect when we have the mechanism to do it?

It's not if, we can do it now.

Your argument here contradicts itself because, on the one hand, you say men don't know enough about marriage, but my assumption is that your mission is to let men know about marriage?

Absolutely.

Okay, well, then I don't understand how it's the land of make-believe if you can let them know about this, but I can't?

Sure.

Get off of that.

So if I am, it sounds like I'm offering a real alternative to what you're offering.