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It's not only in "human DNA" to want to procreate, its in every living being's DNA. Most animals will risk death to procreate, as will humans.
The trick is, with humans, we've realized how to satisfy the drive to procreate, while not actually creating offspring. It's a bit like a gotcha. Yeah, we're having sex, or watching porn all the time, simulating procreating behaviors, satisfying the insatiable drive that's biologically calling us to procreate, without actually creating babies.
Interesting. How many human babies, throughout the span of human existence on the planet, were wanted and planned, rathe than oops? My guess is, maybe 1/4, at the very very most.
What about plants, viruses, bacteria, insects? They all employ tactics to reproduce prolifically. Think of all the acorns that come from one large oak tree or the thousands of those winged seeds from maple trees. The drive to reproduce ( <-- proper word to use as it is biological versus the religious "procreate") is evolutionary.
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"I don't understand. But I don't care, so it works out."
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AtkinsonDan
What about plants, viruses, bacteria, insects? They all employ tactics to reproduce prolifically. Think of all the acorns that come from one large oak tree or the thousands of those winged seeds from maple trees. The drive to reproduce ( <-- proper word to use as it is biological versus the religious "procreate") is evolutionary.
I couldn't agree with you more. That's what I was sayin'.
All living beings have a strong desire to replicate themselves.
You know - that has happened to me. So many questions
I figured, maybe the woman asking me realized - What? I didn't have to have kids?
The last one that asked turns out has a mentally ill adult son that has caused her so many problems.
Another one told me that she should have drowned her kids at birth!
That last one is pretty creepy.
It must suck to put all your hopes and dreams into a kid just to have them turn out to be some kind of a mess. I thought it might be happening to me, but things took a turn for the better. Still, you never know what's around the bend. Best that we not live through our children.
You know something, some of the comments you make are prone to getting "misunderstood" by the average reader. Step back and take look sometime. Here you're talking pretty blithely about a pandemic that kills billions of people. What kind of world would come out of that? How would the survivors be effected? I guess you can think it would be really cool when you don't have any kids or grandkids to worry about. And you wonder why people who celebrate "Child Free Day" are seen as a bunch of narcissistic kooks by people who do the heavy lifting in this life.
I think Mother's Day and Father's Day are rather narcissistic. You chose to have children, now you want recognition and a special day? I've never liked those two forced holidays. I think they're stupid. What's wrong with a Child Free Day if we nationally celebrate people who choose to have kids?
All living beings have a strong desire to replicate themselves.
True. But humans are the only species that have a choice in the matter.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AtkinsonDan
But you did do something. You made a sacrifice to not follow the (social) herd and create yet another (human) organism that would compete with other species for space and natural resources. You accepted a path of inaction that benefits the ecosystem and other species who are under ever growing duress from the continued expansion of human civilization. That IS something to be celebrated.
Thank you, but I don't deserve praise. My reasons were more personal and not as noble as that (though I do believe the earth is overpopulated). I just didn't think I was up to the job.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JerseyGirl415
I think Mother's Day and Father's Day are rather narcissistic. You chose to have children, now you want recognition and a special day? I've never liked those two forced holidays. I think they're stupid. What's wrong with a Child Free Day if we nationally celebrate people who choose to have kids?
I do get it. Being a parent is a tough. I don't see anything wrong with saluting those who (as another poster put it) did the heavy lifting.
I do get it. Being a parent is a tough. I don't see anything wrong with saluting those who (as another poster put it) did the heavy lifting.
It may be tough but it's a choice. No one has to do it, especially in modern times in western society when people have so many preventative measures and options. Having kids is obviously extremely normal and nothing special.
I'd be careful calling raising children "heavy lifting," it may come across as if nothing else in life is difficult or important like I think it did in the original post that mentioned it. I would call "heavy lifting" doing things in life that help better society overall, like researching deadly diseases to find cures and creating vaccines and putting oneself at risk for others (like those in Doctors Without Borders who suit up to treat ebola patients and fight the spread of it despite the high risks) or fighting for some Constitutional right with wide reaching impacts in front of the Supreme Court. Some people with kids think it's the most important thing in the world but other people have different priorities and wants in life, and that's okay. It shouldn't be a contest, a competition between who does more "heavy lifting" because it's really hard to even say. Some parents are good, some parents frankly suck and should never have had kids.
Before anyone questions and thinks I have some bias or agenda (as they have before), I was raised in a wonderful household with great parents but I have seen a number of bad situations in my area of work and just general life experience. Plenty of people out there shouldn't have ever had kids, and I think nothing is more selfish than bringing children into a not good situation; far more selfish than not having them at all as is often argued (to my dismay because I personally don't see not having kids as selfish, it's simply a personal preference and major life decision either way). Simply being a parent does not make a person some elevated special human. I don't think it's as simple as comparing parents and non-parents. There are various types of parents and non-parents and they are not all equal; some non-parents are overall better people than some parents and vice versa.
Humanity has an obligation to continue to exist, to perpetuate the species. We find ourselves as the steward of life on Earth. Just by virtue of being the only intelligent species on the planet. As far as we know, all life and all intelligent life is found on Earth. If humanity were to cease to exist, an asteroid or comet would strike, or there could be disease outbreak and all life on Earth, and all known life in the universe, would also cease to exist. Eventually the Sun will increase in size and destroy the Earth.
But if we do continue to exist, we can populate other planets, including other planets orbiting other stars, and spread life and intelligent life throughout the solar system and the galaxy, thus ensuring its security.
All the beauty that has been created by life and intelligence must continue to exist and thrive.
Rather than causing overpopulation, humanity actually faces its eventual extinction, if we do not have more children. The Total Fertility Rate for the world has to stay above 2.1, or we will not replace the previous generation.
I unfortunately have never had children. I wanted to, but no one ever liked me back. I hope to be a known sperm donor someday, if I can find the right couple and they are interested in going through IVF with me.
I would never want to date or touch someone who supports VHET, or thinks the human population should be reduced. Seeing a dead human body being decomposed by maggots would disgust me less than VHET/ChildFree.
Location: "Silicon Valley" (part of San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA)
4,375 posts, read 4,068,219 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JerseyGirl415
I think Mother's Day and Father's Day are rather narcissistic. You chose to have children, now you want recognition and a special day?
Yes, to be a parent is a difficult and noble task. It deserves respect and admiration. And we need to perpetuate the species so we can continue to be the steward of life on Earth.
Quote:
What's wrong with a Child Free Day if we nationally celebrate people who choose to have kids?
Because then we would be advocating the idea that humanity should die out, which is a disgusting idea.
Yes, to be a parent is a difficult and noble task. It deserves respect and admiration. And we need to perpetuate the species so we can continue to be the steward of life on Earth.
Because then we would be advocating the idea that humanity should die out, which is a disgusting idea.
I don't know of anyone who seriously believes that "humanity should die out." But if we don't control our numbers, and if we continue to foul our own nest at the rate we have been, it's a real possibility. We have been doing a pretty poor job of stewardship.
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