Slow work day = Memy goodness!
- Which search engine do you prefer and why?
Google for most stuff – I’m used to it and it turns up loads of results. If I’m looking for something academic, though, I use Ask Jeeves. - Why is marriage such a significant institution?
Probably because it is both a civil and a religious institution. As humans, most of us feel the urge to bond very strongly with a select number of people (usually, but not always, one) and to formalize that with a commitment ceremony of some sort. In the past, marriage was as much a political/ownership thing as anything else, and indeed, in the upper classes the political/economic considerations were far more important than the romantic ones. Nowadays, though, romance is the primary reason for getting married and there are real, legal benefits to being married which you don’t get from just living together. This is what’s led to the whole brou-haha over homosexual weddings – gays and lesbians want the legal benefits of marriage and feel entitled to it because they have the romantic side nailed. I’d say they ARE entitled to it, since these days the main qualification for getting married is being in love. The political/reproductive aspect is long gone. Bah, I’m rambling. Onward! - Can a soul be sold?
No. Why? Because it (generally) does not manifest physically and “selling” it wouldn’t result in tangible results. I mean, if you sell the rights to a book, there are tangible results – the owner of the book rights can print the book, or make it into a movie. But if you sell a soul, what does the new owner get? A whole lot of nothing.Of course, I don’t believe in the existence of Satan, the traditional buyer of souls. If he existed, he’d get real, tangible benefit from ownership – another soul to torture in the afterlife. But I don’t believe he exists, so I don’t believe souls can be sold.
