Many people have always declared that marriage is an institution ordained by God, where a man leaves his parent’s house, take a woman in as wife, and build a family to enhance God’s will of procreation.  Many of the critics against this belief claim that the holy union of man and woman is quite unnecessary for procreation.   They even have the statistic to prove that the divorce rate in the United States as well as other modern societies is not only above 50%, but the divorce rate in the Church is also higher.  The radical feminists have always argued that a man is not needed in the home especially in the era where single-motherhood is more celebrated as a success for women than in marriage.  Many will even say publicly that reproduction is a waste when there are many children left for adoption and moreover, raising a child by oneself is even more convenient than having to deal with their father too. 

If it is true that marriage is from God, why is the modern society rejecting and fighting against it?  Some say that the Devil has taken over the world and is misleading the modern and civilized society.  If this is so, why do people line up at their embassies to go to the lands of the Devil for a better life away from their lands of God?  Could it be that God has nothing to do with marriage?  Could it be that mankind invented marriage for a reason and put it on God in order to enforce the tradition easily?  Could it be than the ruling class or the government of nations needs the marriage certificate to acquire tax, reduce the cost and pains of fatherless children, or address the issues of inheritance effectively.  In order to analyze this topic without bias, I will like to tackle this issue from a spiritual, scientific, and social perspective. 

Spiritually or Biblically, it is very evident in Genesis 1 that God intentionally made every living sexual creature to be male and female (except for asexual organisms) and his first commandment to them all was to reproduce their kind.  In Genesis 2, Adam had no woman.  God then created a woman from his rib and they were to be one flesh.  By Genesis 3 and 4, mankind had a concept of death, murder, property, polygamy, tools, and weapons.  By Genesis 6, God destroys all of his creation except those in the ark.  At the very beginning in Genesis 1, God was more interested in reproduction than marriage.  God blessed reproduction and provided both genders for it, but why was Adam without a woman in the Genesis 2 after reproduction was ordained?  I already know that there is 4 millions years between Genesis 1 (Man of creation, Lucy, and other human remains excavated out of Africa) and Genesis 2 (Adam is 8,000 years old in Ethiopia (upper Nile) not Mesopotamia).  Why did Adam isolate himself? Why did God make him a new woman? Why was Cain scared of God driving him away in Genesis 3 to be killed by other children of the original woman?  The isolated man that had a special woman made from his own rib, who was not expected to only reproduce but join his woman as one flesh, was ultimately no different from the rest.  Soon, God drove him out to be the rest of creation and God eventually destroyed his creation but left a few to recreate it in the ark. 

Scientifically or anthropologically, the oldest humans ever found are about 4.4 million years old, but the Biblical Adam is just 8,000 years old.  Adam is the forefather of Noah (2000 years apart).  Noah was the man spared in the ark to repopulate the world in Genesis 6.  He is also the father of modern humans.  His African children built most of North, East, and West Africa before migrating into the Middle East (Mesopotamia – Babylon) in Genesis 10 to build the Towel of Babel in Genesis 11.  Genesis 1-10 was all in continental Africa.  Do not let anyone teach you otherwise.  According to anthropology, mankind had a problem between Genesis 1 and 2.  Our problem was not necessary sin, but rather, survival.  Man could not compete with the other land animals for food and shelter.  In fact, man was one of the weakest and most hunted creatures who were too slow in adaptation to the stiff competition for survival compared to other animals.  Mankind was desolate, scattered, frustrated, and isolated for fear of being defenseless against invading carnivores.  Man had no option than to come up with a system of loyalty and defense, which was marriage and weapons.  Rather than having children with women all over the place and each one fending for self, it became necessary to bring a woman, women, and their children together in a specific location to form a community and defend it.  They were not just defending human survival, but rather, protecting survival of their offspring.  To defend the community effectively, weapons were needed to counter the strength and speed of man-eaters.  Ultimately, the weapons for defense became weapons for hunting for meat and farming became a trend for the communities to provide food.  Till this day, about 70% of our diet is from crops.  So it took about 4 million years for man to come up with the concept of marriage as a solution to building a community for survival and defense.  This must be the reason why Adam was isolated in Eden and Cain did not want to meet other hostile communities while wandering away from home. 

Socially in many third world nations, marriage is still valued as a way of life.  Some see it as tradition, the will of God, survival, getting into a richer family, or even freeing parents from feeding more mouths.  In fact, when a person gets to a certain age and is not married, people begin to either question the credibility of the individual or the family.  In the more modernized societies, marriage tends to have become either unnecessary or an experiment.  Many are now seeing marriage as an obstacle to their career, freedom, and independence from the opposite gender.  While many men are still sexual hunters, they neither want to be married to the modern woman early nor deal with the modern laws of raising children.  Many women due to the influence of feminism do not want to feel they made it with the help of a man.  They would rather concentrate on their career, property, and money than to settle down early.  Homosexuality and orgies has become a more convenient lifestyle in having sexual relationships in the dark without worrying about divorce, raising children, or losing your freedom to marriage.  While many in third world nations still see marriage as an institution for survival and God’s order of reproduction, the west, with their technology, wealth from slavery and colonization, and global trading laws to maintain their wealth, no longer rely on marriage for security and survival.  In fact, their worry is adoption of unwanted children and protection from sexually transmitted diseases due to their multiple sexual partners and immoral orgies.  While many in developing nations have chosen to stick to the agreement of Eden to be one flesh, it seems the west have decided to return to the beginning where sex and reproduction without commitment to survival was the order of the day. 

In summary, it does not matter if you believe that marriage was ordained by God or it is manmade.  What is clear is that marriage was a formula for human survival that was either established in Eden by God and Adam in Genesis 2, or mankind was forced to build communities for survival to overcome the strength and speed of the carnivores.  Statistic also shows that in Black America, only 30% of the Black women are married, about 46% of Black women will never be married, over 60% of American women living with HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases are Black women, and Blacks only make up about 13% of the American population.  The lower your marriage rates, the higher your sexual disease rates compared to other races.  On Warren Ballentine Radio Show, statistic showed that over 65% of children afflicted with suicide, high school drop out, alcoholism, drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, unemployment, illiteracy, crime, divorce, deadly sicknesses, imprisonment, and gang violence are from fatherless homes. This does not mean that cheating married people do not have sexually transmitted diseases or children from fatherless homes do not succeed, it simply shows that marriage is still a necessity for the survival of humanity from extinction or societal decay. 

References: 

1)  AIDS in Black America: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/04/health/main539283.shtml  

   http://www.natap.org/2006/HIV/031506_03.htm 

2) Single Parent Disaster:    http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/04/health/main539283.shtml   

  http://family.jrank.org/pages/1577/Single-Parent-Families-Effects-on-Children.html