Rousseau_CHN

Eistein married his first cousin, so did Darwin. And they did have normal children.

What does the Theist say about "blood" marriages? and what does the atheist say about it?

Is the taboo, according to Theist, biblically based?

Or is it just a crime against taste?

Demosthenes

I fail to see what relativity theory has to do with marrying first cousins. Hon, move on.

Rousseau_CHN

Einstein, first cousin...get the picture.

I was trying to be cute

Corwin

There was a study done a while back that looked at first cousin marriages.... it's been done for millenia with no real problems.

You don't start to get into serious genetic issues until you start breeding siblings usually. Cousins are far enough apart to not be a problem.

Ernest Sparks

here is a summary of the facts-

In the early 1900s, Albert was full of love as well as ideas. He invited fellow student Mileva Maric to enjoy Lake Como (Italy) with him.

From their letters-

Albert: "My sweet little witch, without you my life is no life"

Mileva: "Dear, naughty little sweet-heart waiting with pounding heart and open arms"

The result was a daughter, little Liese ("Lieserl"). But Albert moved on to Bern (Switzerland) and was employed by the civil service there. The existence of an illegitimate child would have been grounds for dismissal. Lieserl had to be given up for adoption. Nobody knows what happened to her. <--------

Albert married Mileva. They had two sons:

Hans Albert Einstein, who later studied civil engineering and became a steel-structure designer. <-------

Eduard Einstein, who practiced music and studied medicine, intending to become a psychiatrist. He developed schizophrenia and was committed to an institution. <-------

In the 1910's, Albert Einstein was on an academic roll (hotly in demand) and took a professorship in Berlin. Mileva hated it there, so they separated. Later they were divorced.

Albert married his cousin Elsa. She had older daughters from a previous marriage. By this time, apparently all Albert wanted was a good homemaker/housekeeper, and Elsa was such. There were no children from this match. <-------

In the 1930s, the Einsteins left Europe and came to America. Elsa died and Einstein was looked after (until he died) by his secretary and general factotum, Helen Dukas. He had little-to-no contact with his children.

MzNeko

Marrying first cousins isn't so bad if done only occasionally. It's more of a problem if you marry your first cousin, and your kids marry their first cousins, and their kids marry their first cousins, etc....

Once in a while isn't going to make much difference, making a habit/tradition out of it brings a possibility of inbreeding problems.

Hell, for that matter, a brother and sister marrying probably wouldn't be hazardous, as long as there weren't already any major genetic diseases present, and as long as their kids didn't follow suit.

It sure would make for some odd family dynamics, though. Not to mention personal ickyness-factors.

Cthulhu

I believe it's actually a requirement if you live in Arkansas.

Corwin

Actually even with numerous generations cousins aren't close enough to be a problem. Our incest taboo is unusually restrictive, historically speaking.

There have been a number of cultures where your preferred marriage partner was your maternal first cousin.

This is one of the few people in the world that you can be just about gauranteed to share a genetic link with.