I suppose this fits closest.

I believe it's a ceremony symbolizing the life-long commitment between people who love each other.

I will say that this is a hard question because in some cultures you aren't married until you have had the ceremony whereas other countries the ceremony isn't needed. So to not have to chose I used a scripture where God tells a man "she is your companion and your wife by covenant" basically what I get from this is that a marriage is a commitment you have with a person, and that marriage will be a convanent between the couple and God.

Just a commitment without God means nothing because that doesn't say that you are married but just simply attached to someone either emotional or physically. Not all commitments to a person are lets use the word biblical.

I wouldn't say that the ceremony is the best but it fits closer I think to the tradition of what happens in a marriage. The father will give up his daughter (allows his daughter to give up her maiden name) to the husband (wife takes on the husbands name). The vows are for the covenant between man and wife, and couple with God. The rings are to be the symbol of the union. The reason I didn't vote for this one was because it didn't include covenant with God.

@Tiagih: Just a commitment without Loki means nothing because that doesn't say that you are married but just simply attached to someone either emotional or physically. Not all commitments to a person are lets use the word Lokean.

I fixed the statement for you.

Let me explain something to you. My marriage will be just as committed, just as true, just as valid, just as loving as yours, even though YWH will have absolutely no part in my wedding. Just like how your wedding will be valid, committed, loving, and true, even though you won't have any Norse gods at your wedding.

Do you know why? Because what a marriage means is not, in any way, based around the gods that are present during the ceremony (if any are at all). And if your marriage needs gods to give it meaning, it's probably not a good marriage to begin with.

^I don't really know a nice way to say this but let me try. As a Christians our whole lives are to worship God and honor him in all out deeds, actions, and thoughts, that is it.. With that being said you aren't a Christian (my impression) so perhaps the personal attachment Christians have with God is something that you don't practice with your "gods" and that is why you can make....let me just use the word rude sense I was slightly offended but I don't think that was your intention. However in this faith there is an attachment to God so much that when we get married we make a covenant with God to stay married to that person in hopes that person was sent by God for that person to help be a blessing and an encouragement to stay faithful to God.

Christians need God, that may sound weird if you dont have a personal relationship with a deity but that is the way this faith works. There is no "God I want this, because I am a good person", its "God though I am not worthy, if you could show mercy please.....". If you don't understand that then you will not understand what I mean when I say that a marriage that isn't centered (somewhere) around God isn't right. Because if you marry someone who will lead you astray from God that is you soul that is at stake.

I don't mean to sounds harsh but I think you comment was a bit insensitive.

I don't mean to sounds harsh but I think you comment was a bit insensitive.
You're right, because telling someone their marriage is completely meaningless if they don't have the "right" god in their ceremony IS a pretty insensitive thing to say.

To make my point as obvious as I possibly can: I was using your own words against you. The words were the exact same ones you used. I literally just replaced one gods name for another. If you were offended, perhaps you should look back on your own words and think about what you're actually saying to people.

This is not a problem of me not understanding Christianity and their relationship with their god. This is not a problem of me not understanding personal relationships with gods.

This is a problem of Christians thinking they own marriage, and only Christian marriages are "right" and have "meaning." (Again, those are YOUR words, not mine.) This is a problem of YOU not respecting, or even trying to understand the fact that a god does NOT HAVE to be involved in a marriage in order to make it "right" or "meaningful."

Non-Christians, and Christians who have secular ceremonies have marriages that are right and meaningful.

^ok I didn't say you were insensitive because you believe that God doesn't have the ceremony but the marriage as a whole. A ceremony isn't required for you to be married or for the marriage to be legit.

"This is a problem of YOU not respecting, or even trying to understand the fact that a god does NOT HAVE to be involved in a marriage in order to make it "right" or "meaningful."

Ok then we don't need to continue this conversation because you don't believe in certain fundamentals that Christians do. When I say that our duty on earth is to serve and honor God in all we do (or at least try), that includes our marriage. If you don't agree with that, that is fine but understand that is a Christian fundamental. If you think that God isn't required in a marriage (I didn't say ceremony) then all I can do is say that isn't Christian, because there really isn't much to argue about.

You have absolutely no idea of my beliefs. It would probably be better for you to stop assuming you did.

There is a big difference between saying "God is really important to Christian marriages" and "if God is not part of your marriage, your marriage is meaningless." Do you see how the former indicated that YWH is special to a certain group of people, but doesn't insult or invalidate non-Christians? You're not doing the former. You're doing the latter. You are, literally, invalidating and insulting millions of people simply because they don't prescribe to your religious beliefs.

^my apologizes for my assumption.

^^once again you and I are in a conflict because I have never once said that a marriage without God was meaningless on any level so don't put words in my mouth. All I said that God must be in it somewhere for the reasons I described in the above comments. If me saying that God must be somewhere in a marriage for it to be a good thing as a Christian, if that offends you all I can say is sorry.

And on that note, who are theses millons of people that I am insulting, because last I checked I kept talking about Christians since this is a Christian spot. God forbid I give a Christian perspective to a question. I said that Christians must have God somewhere in the marriage, I mentioned very little if anything about nonbelievers.

I am not trying to insult you, truly. However you are taking my words out of context insinuating that if God isnt in any marriage I call that marriage meaningless, which isnt anywhere in what I said. This is the second time you have confused my words; you thought I said if you don't have a ceremony with God involved its a meaningless marriage.The closest thing I said along those lines was that for Christians, God must be in the marriage, emphasis on Christians.

You did say that. Right here: Just a commitment without God means nothing because that doesn't say that you are married but just simply attached to someone either emotional or physically. And here: a marriage that isn't centered (somewhere) around God isn't right.

You flat out say these things. As I pointed out, you made no distinction between "this is what's important for Christians and this is what's important to everyone who gets married."

I never said you said anything about ceremony. And I have only used the word ceremony once (beside this comment), so I really don't know why you keep going on about me talking about ceremonies.

Let me say this one more time:
I have NO PROBLEM with Christians having God in their marriage. My problem stemmed from you not making any distinction between 'Christian' and 'everyone else'. This is the Christianity spot, but we are talking about a subject that is extremely broad and effects people that aren't Christian.

^I just said the context was towards Christians, not people in general. Once again you want to believe that I am targeting everyone instead of a specific demographic which are Christians.

There is a distinction between Christians and everyone, if that is what you have a problem with I won't continue this conversation because that is that fact. As Christians we are taught that we are and must be different than everyeone else.

Obviously I don't have a problem with there being a distinction between Christians and everyone since my problem is you not making that distinction in your original comment and I have said this at least four times now.

This question isn't asking about Christian marriage specifically. It is asking about marriage in general -- which includes marriages of people who are not Christian. Therefore, the context is not automatically towards Christians.

^ again sorry for the misreading on my part

Its a Christian club. I don't have to or rather I am not obligated to be general, if this were a question in the debate club I can see a reason to be more general and I guess less specific. But its a Christian club, I am just giving the content of the inferred (Christian club) context, but I will give you credit for pointing out the ambiguity of the question.

You're right, you don't have to make the distinction. But if you're not going to, then be prepared for people to get offended by the implications of you not making that distinction.

^that makes little sense to me, but I will take that into consideration.

What I mean is: no one can force you to make distinctions. There are no rules that say you have to, it's not illegal. But if you aren't going to make a distinction between 'this group and that group' than people are going to think you are talking about everyone as a whole, not just a specific group of people.

^fair enough

Not something that most people take lightly...

This is what God had intended in the first place - Adam and Eve were made man and wife to be together forever. It was only later in the bible that God had made the provision for a writ on the basis of infidelity.

a life long commitment.

Eh, it's honestly a tad overrated IMHO.