Marriage is a religious institution and I think should remain as such. It certainly has it's place, but I'd like to see it (which will never happen) removed entirely from the government in any shape or form.

Marriage as you said is a religious thing, not a Goverment thing, so they are already removed. You just want to rename what the government does so it does not offend your sensibilities.

The Kinsey scale is a scale to measure a person's leanings between heterosexuality and homosexuality. It scales from 0 (Purely heterosexual.) to 6 (Purely homosexual.). Obviously, I haven't really been tested, but there are very, very few men that I find myself sexually attracted to. Like, very, very few.

Also I'm an atheist.

My own situation is that I'm a very busy medical student, and as a result, I have a difficult time holding onto a relationship at the moment. Once I've finished my M.D. and my specialty, I'm hoping things will calm down a little and I can start a family. Luckily, I live in NYC, so, that won't be much of a problem for me legally, anyhow.

That would lose a lot of stuff.

Tax Benefits

• Filing joint income tax returns with the IRS and state taxing authorities.
• Creating a "family partnership" under federal tax laws, which allows you to divide business income among family members.

Estate Planning Benefits

• Inheriting a share of your spouse's estate.
• Receiving an exemption from both estate taxes and gift taxes for all property you give or leave to your spouse.
• Creating life estate trusts that are restricted to married couples, including QTIP trusts, QDOT trusts, and marital deduction trusts.
• Obtaining priority if a conservator needs to be appointed for your spouse -- that is, someone to make financial and/or medical decisions on your spouse's behalf.

Government Benefits

• Receiving Social Security, Medicare, and disability benefits for spouses.
• Receiving veterans' and military benefits for spouses, such as those for education, medical care, or special loans.
• Receiving public assistance benefits.

Employment Benefits

• Obtaining insurance benefits through a spouse's employer.
• Taking family leave to care for your spouse during an illness.
• Receiving wages, workers' compensation, and retirement plan benefits for a deceased spouse.
• Taking bereavement leave if your spouse or one of your spouse's close relatives dies.

Medical Benefits

• Visiting your spouse in a hospital intensive care unit or during restricted visiting hours in other parts of a medical facility.
• Making medical decisions for your spouse if he or she becomes incapacitated and unable to express wishes for treatment.

Death Benefits

• Consenting to after-death examinations and procedures.
• Making burial or other final arrangements.

Family Benefits

• Filing for stepparent or joint adoption.
• Applying for joint foster care rights.
• Receiving equitable division of property if you divorce.
• Receiving spousal or child support, child custody, and visitation if you divorce.

Housing Benefits

• Living in neighborhoods zoned for "families only."
• Automatically renewing leases signed by your spouse.

Consumer Benefits

• Receiving family rates for health, homeowners', auto, and other types of insurance.
• Receiving tuition discounts and permission to use school facilities.
• Other consumer discounts and incentives offered only to married couples or families.

Other Legal Benefits and Protections

• Suing a third person for wrongful death of your spouse and loss of consortium (loss of intimacy).
• Suing a third person for offenses that interfere with the success of your marriage, such as alienation of affection and criminal conversation (these laws are available in only a few states).
• Claiming the marital communications privilege, which means a court can't force you to disclose the contents of confidential communications between you and your spouse during your marriage.
• Receiving crime victims' recovery benefits if your spouse is the victim of a crime.
• Obtaining immigration and residency benefits for noncitizen spouse.
• Visiting rights in jails and other places where visitors are restricted to immediate family.

All I know is that I look forward to the day when I can smile through tears as my brother pledges his life to the man of his dreams.

As long as a spouse is considered Next of Kin, it's not going to make a big difference.
As an atheist (strangely large part of the States now, 1 in 5), I don't think a special bond between two (or more, but usually two) people should be limited to just religion. I think marriage is just a convenient term for that.
I too look forward to the day my favorite aunt can be married to be someone who can put up with her antics.

I feel you may have read my words but not my meaning? My sensibilities are not offended by any sort of marriage. I just don't think the government should have anything to do with it at all, which would mean simply allowing people to do as they please.

However, as Lord Ben has pointed out, there are a lot of benefits from marriage that are accepted as the norm, and doing away with those would hurt many people. I think they could still be arranged without marriage, but I understand that marriage is a convenient way to handle them.

Marriage also creates a theoretically solid framework in which to breed and raise children.

Emphasis mine. People have been raising children in as many different ways as there are cultures on the planet (if not more); the one man-one woman nuclear family is a fairly recent invention, and is by no means the only way to raise fully-functioning children.

I study history and fail to remember such many different ways. Care to ellaborate?