Traditional Marriage

Round 1, I will rebut your opening Round 2- counter points and rebuttals Round 3 - further rebuttals and closing It will be easiest to categorize my responses numerically. 1. Teen pregnancy, birth and abortion rates are at an all time low. During the last 4 years, the number of teens who reported having sex greatly increased, while the birth, pregnancy and abortion rates greatly decreased. This shows Pro's opening statement regarding pregnancy rates to be incorrect and misleading. . http://www.guttmacher.org...+(New+from+the+Guttmacher+Institute) 2. People in monogamous relationships who do not wish to be pregnant, and are not on birth control, must practice safe sex. Married people can have unwanted pregnancy. Married people can also be financially incapable of child rearing, yet can still become pregnant. Married people with multiple children may opt for an abortion, rather than taking on the burden of raising another child, or making the hard choice to give a child away, knowing they may someday learn of their siblings, and believe they were less loved. This demonstrates Pro's second point to be assumptive, and uses a very real empathetic hypothetical to indicate Pro's fundamentally flawed perspective on the entire framing of the debate. 3. Any successful relationship is built on trust, respect and love. Marriage is simply the codification of vows into law, and for some, religious sacrament. Marriage does not create trust, love or respect, those must exist beforehand. The same can be said with safe sexual practices between committed partners. 4. Pro claims "most relationships today are not built on (the three) foundational principals" which is another example of assumption, and has no statistical or verifiable support. Pro also states "most' marriages end in divorce, which is inaccurate, as the word "most" denotes a majority, and statistics indicate it is roughly half of marriages which end in divorce. The irony of Pro's argument is that it conflicts with their overall point, the very fact that so many traditional marriages end in divorce indicates the cultural tradition is fundamentally flawed. 5. Pro assumes pre-marital sexual relationships cannot be built on trust, respect or love, which is myopic and incorrect and a broad generalization with no statistical or verifiable proof to support it. 6. Pro believes our society has no values, yet Pro is arguing for the perpetuation of one of the very societal value they hold so dear. Clearly a conflicting set of opinions. Again Pro utilizes assumptions and stereotypes to castigate and dehumanize those who do not adhere to their thinking, and casts disparaging and overarching generalities on society as a whole. 7. Pro falls into the pit of the slippery slope fallacy toward the end of the diatribe, wherein they indicate pre-marital sex will lead to wide-spread lawlessness, incest, prostitution (which has long been legal in certain states) bestiality and triad relationships (swingers). None of these statements can be substantiated or supported by facts or history. Children and animals cannot consent, so will never be legal for either sex or marriage. Swinging is already legal, and polygamy was legal (for a time) and practiced by Mormon Christians in the US long before safe-sex education began. Prostitution is called the oldest profession for a reason, and has no place in a discussion regarding the value of safe-sex education and endorsement. 8. Traditional marriage was once more of a business deal than an exchange of love, devotion and respect. If we're talking about the western tradition. Pro does not elaborate on what marital tradition they adhere to. Pro could be speaking from a polygamous perspective as a Mormon, or as an Islamic individual. Pro again assumes there is but one marital tradition, when there are countless traditions from countless cultures. 9. In closing, Pro provided no logical support for their stance on traditional marriage superiority, nor were their arguments remotely salient. Pro utilized incorrect and uncited statistics, broad generalities and assumptions to support their various fallacies. Pro failed to produce a single example of the benefits of traditional marriage, while focusing on what they incorrectly assume are the downfalls of safe-sex practices.