Posted on 01/03/2005 8:31:56 AM PST by qam1
Yeah. Why do you ask?
He had a lot of the same ideas. "Excess population" and all that.
Why?
Other than the aforememtioned social security/welfare state reasons, is there any rational reason why the US needs to increase its population?
There are things I do with my wife that I don't do with my friends, including having children. 8-)
Because that is something that society, government etc. can deal with in a concrete matter. Whether or not a child makes it to heaven isn't something government can do much about.
The difference is intent. Infertile couples aren't infertile by choice.
There's also the category of people past the child-bearing age who get married. For some of these people, it's better for society, and for them, to get married rather than to become "dirty old men" (or women). As St. Paul said:
1 Corinthians 7:8-9Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
The Catholic position is that the purpose of intercourse is two-fold, the unity of the couple and the generation of children.
Observing the Natural LawIf you click on the link you'll find a full explication of the Catholic position. It's quite beautiful. You'll also find that the pope's predictions regarding male/female relationships in light of the widespread use of contraceptives to be prophetic.11. The sexual activity, in which husband and wife are intimately and chastely united with one another, through which human life is transmitted, is, as the recent Council recalled, "noble and worthy.'' (11) It does not, moreover, cease to be legitimate even when, for reasons independent of their will, it is foreseen to be infertile. For its natural adaptation to the expression and strengthening of the union of husband and wife is not thereby suppressed. The fact is, as experience shows, that new life is not the result of each and every act of sexual intercourse. God has wisely ordered laws of nature and the incidence of fertility in such a way that successive births are already naturally spaced through the inherent operation of these laws. The Church, nevertheless, in urging men to the observance of the precepts of the natural law, which it interprets by its constant doctrine, teaches that each and every marital act must of necessity retain its intrinsic relationship to the procreation of human life. (12)
Union and Procreation
12. This particular doctrine, often expounded by the magisterium of the Church, is based on the inseparable connection, established by God, which man on his own initiative may not break, between the unitive significance and the procreative significance which are both inherent to the marriage act.
The reason is that the fundamental nature of the marriage act, while uniting husband and wife in the closest intimacy, also renders them capable of generating new lifeand this as a result of laws written into the actual nature of man and of woman. And if each of these essential qualities, the unitive and the procreative, is preserved, the use of marriage fully retains its sense of true mutual love and its ordination to the supreme responsibility of parenthood to which man is called. We believe that our contemporaries are particularly capable of seeing that this teaching is in harmony with human reason.
Humanae Vitae
Pope Paul VI
Those days never existed. Women were always welcome in the professions, the arts, etc. It's just that very few ever bothered, back in the old days. So says my mother, who was indeed one of those few. She was never sexually harassed, she never ran into a glass ceiling, was never discriminated against. But when she had a baby at 43, she knew enough to stay home with me.
The glass ceiling, so called, is NEW, and it was created to keep hostile, ideologically driven feminists (who entered the workplace for all the wrong reasons) from ruining things by their bad attitudes.
On a economic level, people are wealth. Any conservative or libertarian economist will tell you that. So the question becomes, why does the US need wealth?
But the most rational reason of all is because God has commanded us to do so.
Incidentally, "overpopulation" is a myth.
Lets say we give all 6 billion people on the planet 1,000 square feet each, did you realize that they all would fit very easily into the state of Texas (with over 1,300 billion square feet left over!).
Texas has 262,015 square miles of land
Which equals 7,304,558,976,000 square feet (262,015 x 27,878,400*) in Texas
Each person gets 1,000 square feet of land
The world population is currently almost 6 billion people (as of 1999)
6 billion x 1,000 square feet per person equals
6,000,000,000,000 square feet needed
________________________________
Grandchildren are the coolest things to ever hit the earth.
You're preaching to the wrong choir. I'm an atheist.
"The glass ceiling, so called, is NEW, and it was created to keep hostile, ideologically driven feminists (who entered the workplace for all the wrong reasons) from ruining things by their bad attitudes."
Well, what kind of "ceiling" or barrier is there for men who are ideologically driven and can ruin things by their bad attitudes?
I am really amazed at the kind of discrimination I have seen posted here. If you were to say the same thing about African Americans, would you not be labeled a bigot?
I understandable that you might be upset but you should not say things that you don't mean. People who don't get married and/or don't have children merely because they just don't wanna are missing out. I try not to judge because some can't and others have good reasons but I don't believe that anybody (with or without) is happy with God all the time, it's not natural.
Men don't enter the workforce for ideological reasons. Men enter the workforce because they HAVE TO. And bad attitudes in men are economically punished, sooner or later.
I am really amazed at the kind of discrimination I have seen posted here. If you were to say the same thing about African Americans, would you not be labeled a bigot?
Telling the truth isn't bigotry.
I would submit to you that those couples who are "infertile by choice" are doing the world a favor and rather than being called names such as "selfish", they should be thanked for not bringing children into the world who would be treated as an inconvenience or even resented. The last thing this world needs is another neglected, resented child growing up to be a mass murderer or something. No child deserves to be raised like that.
If they're yours, I'm sure that to you, they are. To me, they're just children. They may be cute and smart, but they're just children.
Right. I'm so special that I simply MUST pass on my genes...
Whatever.
Of course grandkids are best if they're yours. The point is that without first having and raising kids you don't get to find out how coll grandkids are.
It's important not to get a big rock and hit yourself over the head with it until your skull is fractured. Jesus neglected that instruction.
Just conjecture here, but, it's part of the freedom that He gives us. We are free to turn our back on what is natural - marry the other sex, not have children and not hit our heads with rocks until our skull is fractured.
Then we can reap what we sow, with a fractured society and our brains running out our ears.
Okay, well you've all convinced me. I'm going to quit using the marketable skills that God gave me and not work anymore. And I'm going to ignore the fact that I don't want kids, and that my husband doesn't want kids, and just have them anyway. Then I'll be doing my duty to society. I won't be annoying anyone with my career goals. I can then be as self-righteous as all of you parents. I'm sure God will like me better, too.
(I'm not usually so sarcastic, but you people have driven me to the brink!)
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