Russ, you act as though Christianity owns a copyright on the institution of marriage. If you drop a group of human infants on a remote island and wean them until they are mature enough to fend for themselves, then let them proliferate on their own, eventually some among them will think up the idea of ritualizing the act of monogamy, of life long committment.

So, as I said, you can argue that Christianity invented it until you're blue in the face (which isn't true but we'll play the Russ Tanner game just for the sake of argument) -- that still wouldn't negate the fact that that is irrelevant. Cultures copy aspects of other cultures all the time, and then make their own unique versions of them. One might as well get upset that other countries use the fork, or take baths.

By the way, you have no clue what source I get my information from. And seeing as I don't own a television, the Discovery Channel is not one of them. Making assumptions does little to help your image as forum moderator, or as a mature poster in general.