(Posted this to asktrp, but that's like preaching to the choir - lets try crossposting it here)

I grew up in middle class suburban America. It is never questioned that there is a God who created the universe and silently interacts in our lives. As I got older I started to wonder if "God" is just an abstract concept that humanity has created to comfort us and deal with things we can't explain. I was somewhat thinking like an atheist.

Likewise, it was always just assumed and expected that myself and everyone I know is to get married and have kids. It just is. As an extreme example, take my mentally challenged younger brother. He was also expected to get married. And he did to a somewhat equally mentally challenged girl. Nobody ever questioned that perhaps these two shouldn't get married - even when the divorce happened a few years later. "But at least he was happy for a while" . No he wasn't - she made life hell for him. He had no business getting married.

What if we take this atheist skepticism toward the institution of marriage? Where is the pressure coming from? Who's responsible? Perhaps...

  1. The Church - encouraging congregants to get married and have kids is an obvious way to spread the faith and increase the collection plate/donation money.

  2. The Government - Is this where society started to get away from wealthy men having harems and allowing less fortunate men to also have a wife? It certainly makes for less angry male mobs. And like the Church, it also helps grow the income (in the form of taxes).

  3. Women. There is no question that women benefit much more from marriage as we know it. While men have physical strength, women have mental cunning, and they've collectively used it to convince men that they all should marry, and make a "happy life with a happy wife"

Edit: The point I'm trying to make is that, like God, marriage has become so ingrained in society that it's considered heresy to even question it.