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procreation
Aug. 4th, 2006 02:54 pmso, reproduction has been a topic of conversation recently, popping up everywhere. my world was rocked a little off balance when a former coworker told me that he'd fathered a child. Now, you can't spend five minutes with this guy and not know just how virulently anti-child he is. But his gf got pregnant and wouldn't give it up. ow. ow, ow. suddenly next week can't come soon enough for me. but it got me to thinking about church strictures and morality and "families" and birth control and such.
taken in the context of several hundred years ago, with a generally poor and illiterate flock, catholic church strictures make a lot of sense. with no reliable way to prevent pregnancy, and no healthcare to speak of, in effect you have a good chance that someone is going to get pregnant every time they have sex. The majority of these people will have no way to care for a baby, and there are good odds that either the baby or the woman will die in the process. what to do? a few things come to mind:
only have sex after marriage- the father has a legal relationship with the mother at this point, and is more likely to provide for his spawn, even if the mother dies.
only have sex for procreation- you're gonna get pregnant, so you might as bloody well INTEND to get pregnant. it's not a fucking surprise.
don't covet another mans property/wife- hey we have rules of inheritance for a reason. no one wants your kid to inherit their house.
it's not a question of bodily virtue or morality- it's a question of reducing poverty, malnutrition, death, unwanted children. especially since the buck stopped at the church- if no one else could take care of those kids, and they didn't die, they got dumped on church-run orphanages.
a marriage *had* to be a man and a wife, because women had no legal standing. women were property, women couldn't provide for *themselves* much less for babies.
how is any of that relevant today? more reliably than ever before, we have the means of preventing conception, but the catholic church works *against* it- using ancient processes on a modern population. we don't need a family to be a man and a woman because now both women and men can provide, inherit, vote, and care. the only imperative that remains is DON'T FUCKING BREED UNLESS YOU INTEND TO, UNLESS YOU ARE ABLE TO, UNLESS YOU CAN PROVIDE FOR THE HELPLESS BABY THAT WILL RESULT.
meh.
taken in the context of several hundred years ago, with a generally poor and illiterate flock, catholic church strictures make a lot of sense. with no reliable way to prevent pregnancy, and no healthcare to speak of, in effect you have a good chance that someone is going to get pregnant every time they have sex. The majority of these people will have no way to care for a baby, and there are good odds that either the baby or the woman will die in the process. what to do? a few things come to mind:
only have sex after marriage- the father has a legal relationship with the mother at this point, and is more likely to provide for his spawn, even if the mother dies.
only have sex for procreation- you're gonna get pregnant, so you might as bloody well INTEND to get pregnant. it's not a fucking surprise.
don't covet another mans property/wife- hey we have rules of inheritance for a reason. no one wants your kid to inherit their house.
it's not a question of bodily virtue or morality- it's a question of reducing poverty, malnutrition, death, unwanted children. especially since the buck stopped at the church- if no one else could take care of those kids, and they didn't die, they got dumped on church-run orphanages.
a marriage *had* to be a man and a wife, because women had no legal standing. women were property, women couldn't provide for *themselves* much less for babies.
how is any of that relevant today? more reliably than ever before, we have the means of preventing conception, but the catholic church works *against* it- using ancient processes on a modern population. we don't need a family to be a man and a woman because now both women and men can provide, inherit, vote, and care. the only imperative that remains is DON'T FUCKING BREED UNLESS YOU INTEND TO, UNLESS YOU ARE ABLE TO, UNLESS YOU CAN PROVIDE FOR THE HELPLESS BABY THAT WILL RESULT.
meh.
