Errh. What is the normal way to get married then, from your view? Mail a letter to the nearest municipal or judicial office?
“Getting married”, once shed of all religious connotations and other nasty bits, is a social contract before witnesses published so that: 1) The spouses are more motivated to cooperate and remain at a high level of mutual affection. 2) Individuals not part of the marriage (i.e. everyone else) are aware that these spouses are “together” presumably for a long time and that they should not get in their way and they are not “available”.
I don’t think you’re using the right reference class for the question. If we’re talking about the set of people who might find Less Wrong interesting, I predict that most of them would find it more weird if two atheists from atheist families got married by a priest than if they got married by the head of an Internet community. (Most normal for that reference class is picking a celebrant who’s just a friend, or a Unitarian minister, or a comedian, etc.)
Errh. What is the normal way to get married then, from your view? Mail a letter to the nearest municipal or judicial office?
“Getting married”, once shed of all religious connotations and other nasty bits, is a social contract before witnesses published so that: 1) The spouses are more motivated to cooperate and remain at a high level of mutual affection. 2) Individuals not part of the marriage (i.e. everyone else) are aware that these spouses are “together” presumably for a long time and that they should not get in their way and they are not “available”.
That’s the way I see it / was taught, anyway.
In a church, with two families present, by a priest. Just because it’s nonsense doesn’t make it not normal.
I don’t think you’re using the right reference class for the question. If we’re talking about the set of people who might find Less Wrong interesting, I predict that most of them would find it more weird if two atheists from atheist families got married by a priest than if they got married by the head of an Internet community. (Most normal for that reference class is picking a celebrant who’s just a friend, or a Unitarian minister, or a comedian, etc.)