Counter-Bingos 6-10
Monday, 04 May 2009 07:08
NOTE: I will be on vacation next week and, therefore, the next time I post should be the week of May 18th. This one is pretty long though, so it should keep you for awhile. ;)
6. You learn so much from your children (they help you grow)!
If I really want to learn something, I can go back to college, read a book (on ANY subject I want), scour the internet, observe the interactions of people around me, interact with them myself, or just live life. There are many ways to learn, if you truly want to learn something. There is nothing I can learn from a child that I can't learn from someone else who is already here.
7. It’s what we’re made for.
Is that the ONLY reason God created me, to reproduce? If reproducing is my only purpose (if it’s what I’m made for), you’re basically telling me that I have no other purpose on this planet? If I have no other purpose, then I have no value as an individual. If I don’t have any value as an individual, then my children certainly wouldn’t either, or their children, and so on…so why reproduce at all? We’d just be creating more worthless people. (Hmm…sounds like a vicious cycle to me.)
8. God said be fruitful and multiply (and fill the earth).
Okay, who can argue the Word of God? I can’t, but I can say that I feel that was said in a time when God wanted us to increase our numbers and populate the planet. I think this has been (more than) accomplished. THE EARTH IS FULL. With 6.5+ billion people living on this planet, how many more people do we need? We can’t even feed and vaccinate all of those we have here already. (We have a responsibility to ensure we can take care of those that we already have before bringing more people into this world. It’s about the QUALITY of life, not the QUANTITY of life.) (And if “Global Warming” is real, then things are only going to get worse…the amount of fertile lands will decrease [due to increased housing demand = less land for farming], food production will drop, water supplies will dwindle, and mankind will get even more violent that we already are now.)
There are other organisms out there that are trying to increase their numbers as well (insects, amphibians, viruses, any and every animal on this planet), and do you know what we call the ones that reach the point of being so numerous that they edge other species out? A plague (definition according to Webster: “A destructively numerous influx”). Think about it. (Why do humans believe that we're the only ones exempt from becoming a planetary nuisance?)
Something else to consider. It is my belief that we have more diseases today than ever before in history. Could this be God’s way of saying “your numbers have gotten too large…I need to put some controls on the population so you don’t completely overtake the planet (more than you already have) and throw the delicate, yet fully-capable-of-rebounding-if-given-the-opportunity, ecosystem out of whack?” Hmmmm.
Oh yeah, and if you’re planning on pulling the God card, please remember that God gave us the ability to make our own choices (a.k.a., FREE WILL). If God’s plan was for every single person on this planet to reproduce, as a requirement, He simply would have made it an automatic part of our lives…no choice, come a specific day, you’re pregnant. That’s it. As it is, He did NOT do this. Probably because He wanted us to have options.
9. To carry on the family name.
Again, kind of a selfish (and stupid) reason to bring a being into this world. Not to mention the fact that I think most people would be hard-pressed to do an Internet search and not find at least 500 people with the same last name as them. The name will continue, I guarantee it. I think it’s actually more accurate that people want the family GENES to be carried on. What’s in a gene? Basically, it is a means of immortality. If we have kids, our genes live into another generation and there is evidence that we were here, even when we’re long gone and forgotten…provided, of course, that each generation keeps reproducing. If, anywhere along the way, someone decides not to have kids, part of our “line” dies off. Oh no! Crisis. I assure you, we’re in no danger of the line going extinct. (And if the line does go extinct, so what? What difference is it really going to make?)
As for living on via the gene pool, the reality is that 200 years down the road, you will not be known or remembered. You may be listed on a family tree somewhere, but no one alive will know who you are, what you stood for, or anything about you, in general (unless, of course, you make some life-altering contribution to the betterment of this planet and/or its inhabitants [or become a U.S. President]). In order to accomplish the aforementioned feat(s) and, hence, be remembered until the end of time, you will have to have the time to invest in them (and the good luck to succeed in them). From what I understand, children are a full-time job. How can you raise one (or more) child(ren) and still be able to fulfill such a major endeavor as to be remembered for all time? But I digress… . In reality, the only legacy you will leave are generations of individuals who likely will not even closely resemble you (in looks, values, etc.). In fact, if you came back to life at that time, you probably wouldn’t even recognize them as your descendants. (Think about it…do you know ANYTHING about your great great grandparents [other than their names or the basic information you can find on a family tree or genealogy chart]?) You will not be immortalized, life will simply “just go on.” I don’t need to live on in future generations. I don’t need to “make my mark” on this planet. In fact, I’d rather not. We’ve seen what happens when people make their mark on this planet. Usually, it’s not a good thing. Once in a great while the opposite will be true. But if we stop trying to make our mark and just let the planet be what God made it to be, I think this world would be a much better place.
10. You’ll love them so much and be such a great parent!
You know what? You’re right. I’d love them immensely and I WOULD be a great parent. The BEST actually. But I don’t need to prove it to you or anybody else. And I don’t need to bring a child onto this planet so I can show off my parenting skills. As for love, the way I see it is this: this planet is full of pain, angst, too many things to worry about and fear, and too many people that are out to achieve their own desires at the expense of everybody around them. I love my would-be children so much that I don’t want to put them through all of that. Would you intentionally put your child in a situation where they are going to have to constantly struggle and deal with pain? Some parents might say “yes” to this because they feel that it would do the child good to struggle. (These are good and realistic parents in my opinion; however intentionally putting a person in a situation like that when it’s completely avoidable is truly sadistic.) Most people would say “no, of course I don’t want my child to struggle. I struggled so they wouldn’t have to.” Well, what do you think life is? Life is a constant struggle. Would you intentionally put your child into a life-threatening situation? What do you think life is? Life itself is terminal. While there are some wonderful things about living, generally, life is misery. Yes, there is good on this planet. But it is my belief that mankind’s inner greed, selfishness, self-righteousness, and desire for immorality and immortality have allowed the good to fade (or be suppressed to the point of appearing non-existent) and the bad to reign. In the entire history of mankind, have we yet learned how to NOT fight? Have we learned to live in peace? Have we learned to genuinely put others before ourselves? No, we’re fighting just as much (if not more)…due to selfish ambition, and with bigger and much more destructive toys. And things will continue to get worse. I don’t particularly want my children to have to deal with that.
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