Basked on asking around to people who are in dating relationships and observing couples I've noticed that a the main differences between dating relationships and platonic friendships between guys and girls are
-More physical interaction. You'll rarely put your arm around or kiss a girl you're just friends with.
-More exclusivity. When you're someplace with a group of friends and you're date, you're likely to interact more with your date than with the other people in the group.
-More time spent with them than all of your other friends.
-Random "romantic" things like giving them flowers on valentines day and so forth

I really don't see the point. There really doesn't seem to be anything worthwhile you get from a dating relationship that you shouldn't be getting from God (Unconditional affection, etc) or from your spouse (Romance, physical, etc)

However, I'm very much a fan of spending time one on one with a girl, having fun together, making her feel special and getting to know her. IE, I'm a fan of going on dates, but I'm not a fan of dating or having a girlfriend. It seems like it should be possible to go on a "date" with a girl (or multiple girls) but not have her as a girlfriend, but what do you guys think? Am I missing something here that's great about dating that you can't get by a platonic friendship with a girl where you do spend some time one on one? Girls, if a guy asked you out on a "date", explained he didn't want you as a girlfriend but he just wanted to spend an evening with you, get to know you a bit better and have fun together, what would you think and what would you do? If I went out with another girl next week, would you feel jealous? Let me know your thoughts on this, all-I'm curious if this is a good idea and, if it is a good idea, if I can pull it off.

I'm not trying to be a "player" or "pimping" or some such, I just don't see the point of dating but I very much think going on dates is a solid concept and I'd like to see if I can get dates without dating
And again-the datings would have no romance in them. I'd do my best to treat the girls like sisters-no hand holding, arm around the shoulder flowers, romantic poetry, etc. Just act like a brother and a gentleman and give them a nice time.
And I've never had a girlfriend or gone on a date, so I'm going on theory here-there's probably something big that I'm missing because I've never experinced this firsthand.