Steve Evans writes: I’m putting a stop to this silliness. Anyone who argues [about what half the world practices] will be summarily deleted here.

Thanks for being so clear about rationality and reason.

And despite what spater says (and thanks for not letting him run on) there are deleterious effects to women bearing children early and not having a say in marriage and childbearing. For examples, look at www dot endfistula dot org.

A repressive, patriarchal society injures women.

I will state here that I agree with Marlin Jensen’s editorial for the NYT saying, among other things, that early Mormon polygamy was not one of these repressive patriarchies. Dr Dayne’s research into the Utah divorce laws proves this point as much as any other single argument.

Josh said In the 21st century, I can think of no reason for a 15 year-old girl to marry.

That’s just a rehash of current pop culture. Not compelling, and personal anecdotes do not make good public policy.

Why not rephrase it to say ‘In the 21st century, I can think of no reason for anyone to marry.’ ? You have made no argument —in the reasoning sense— for your claims, and just saying something over and over doesn’t make it so.

It’s personal prejudice; not biology, science, or reason that produces outbursts like “I have zero tolerance for this practice.”

I am not arguing that 15 is the ideal age to marry, but you state it’s intolerable . . . somehow due to this century. What!? Perhaps you have it backwards, because with modern medicine it is now safer to marry and have children at a young age.

Modern medicine has not been as successful preventing maternal age effects like Down Syndrome, and only moderate success with reduced fertility and STDs; adverse effects exacerbated by delaying marriage.

Please don’t try to disregard biology and defy our Creation.

I’m not sure I understand your question, so I’ll just try and clarify my comment.

I accept that in a different era 15 was an acceptable age to marry, even 15 year olds to older men: shorter life expectancy, high mortality rates for women bearing children, different economic situations where marrying may provide the basics for a girl that would not otherwise be provided for.

Also, I can almost wrap my mind around a world where women were more of a commodity, where an economic structure clearly dilineated roles for women and men and marriage was more “functional.” I’ve never lived in that world, but I can imagine it. I would pause before applying my own moral notions on a completely different economic landscape.

But the 21st century in the U.S. is not that world. The underlying assumptions of that world are gone–death in child birth is rare, people can expect to live into their thirties, people can even have children in their forties. And the economics has changed. No longer is it necessary for a girl to go from her father’s house to her husband’s house.

In the 21st century, I can think of no reason for a 15 year-old girl to marry. (That is, other than some pervert can’t convince an emotionally and physically mature woman to marry him.) I have zero tolerance for this practice.

That is what I meant. And my views on this are horribly tainted by own role as a father of daughters. Yesterday one of my young daughters was pretending to marry her younger sister. So dad had to intervene. “Well, is she done with college? Surely she can’t marry before college. Can she take care of herself? Does she pay her own bills? How old is she? Six? Good heavens, she can’t marry until she’s at least 25.” There you go. Dad poopooed a perfectly fun game because of his own fears that his daughters will marry too young.