Quote:
Originally Posted by mineistaken
kane,
I will explain using unrelated but more vivid example so that you could understand how it devalues marriage.
Lets take word "automobile". We all know what it is. Then suddenly somebody adds new definition to "automobile" and starts calling this thing an automobile as well:
So now when you say "automobile" it could mean actual automobile or that carriage. Word "automobile" is devalued.
My point is that there is no need to add WRONG definitions to the word. Why not simply invent new word, for example "garriage"?
So "marriage" would be union of man and woman and "garriage" would be union between same sex. Everybody would have equal rights, just name of the union would be different. |
By defining carriages as automobiles you are not devaluing the word automobile you are just expanding the definition as to what an automobile is.
A definition in and of itself has no real value. It is just an explanation of what something is. By modifying that definition you do not devalue. The value of a marriage comes in the actual marriage itself. The value of anything is relative and depends on the item itself and other factors.
Since we are stuck on definitions, one of the definitions of value is: relative worth, utility, or importance.
So by changing the definition of marriage to include gay couples it doesn't devalue it. It doesn't make a marriage worth less. It does not render it useless or less important. How that value of a marriage is determined is up to those in the marriage.
We can go back to your use of the automobile. You might have a very nice, expensive car that you take very good care of and I might have a beat up piece of shit that I could care less about. They are both automobiles by definition, but yours has more value than mine, not because the dictionary defined them both as cars, but because yours is better, higher priced and in better condition.
By saying that same sex couples can have a marriage it does not devalue anyone else's marriage. It is just an explanation of what it is.