BIASED ARGUMENTS ON BOTH SIDES: All arguments pro and con tend to be a bit biased and incomplete and over the top. Some facts, (my facts) not mentioned are that Nature and Nature's God designed us to have free will. Even animals have a scaled down version of it, so no one can definitively say what is good for another. They can suggest, and even on occasion compel, but they cannot expect, or condemn everyone for not following "orders."
PAIN-PLEASURE PRINCIPLE: If we are to believe those who have had the maximum children, they totally enjoy having and raising these children, even on very reduced budgets. So there is no "paying for pleasure" principle with them. So that theory about the Puritans has some big holes in it. The same theory could be applied to pets, because there is cost in caring for them properly also, and there are always those who want the pets but won't take care of them properly.
MARRIAGE AND THE BIBLE: The Bible says about marriage that if you feel lust, you need to expend it by marrying rather than allowing it to be satisfied in other ways that are not so good for the community, or the individuals. AIDS comes to mind. But the Bible clearly prefers everyone be married, and have as many kids as possible. As for sex among those who clearly cannot have children, if they burn with lust, it is better they have sex with each other than molest or rape or let it out in some other dangerous way. Ideally, people who can't have children should help care for the children of those who can, and direct their energy, if possible, into other constructive channels.
SEX AS ADDICTION: Everything can be made into an addiction. Food can be overdone, and even drinking water can kill you, so sex is just another human practice that can be abused to harmful levels, and in harmful ways. The bible warns about some of them.
SUICIDE DEATH WISH AND BIRTH CONTROL: There is also the tendency among humans to suicide and self-destruction of all sorts. These are considered mental disorders and not to be helpful. Some people not having children can come under the heading of feeding a long term depression over surroundings, the environment, and other disappointments with the conditions of life. Killing their own young can be thought of as a kind of way of dealing with these stresses, among other things.
BIRTH CONTROL v CONTRACEPTION: The difference between Contraception and Birth Control is substantial. Contraception is limited to just interfering with Conception, while Birth Control can be a vast range of acts from murder which cuts off people's ability to reproduce, to late marriage, no marriage, abstinence in marriage, infanticide, child murder, sterilization, abortion, and many, many other things which curtail life's reproduction.
COMMON SENSE: We see so many people having just one or two children, and then suddenly they lose one or two, and end up having none. Wouldn't it make just common sense for them to have more children as insurance against loss. When you see how totally pained and desperate they are when they suffer the loss of the one child, you think they should have wisely insured against such devastation. With them it seems like one child is a blessing but two or three or more is some sort of curse. How can this one million dollar child be worth any pain and sacrifice, but more of them be worth nothing, or less than nothing. It is puzzling to figure how these people figure. Or if they figure sanely at all.
CHILDREN AS A BURDEN: So many profess to love children passionately but then don't have any, or just one or two. How does it make sense? And as far as ability to support is concerned, the richest have the fewest children. Does that not destroy the idea that children are a financial burden?
MARRIAGE AND CHILDREN AS PATRIOTISM: So many who are Conservative Patriots profess to love their country and God, with all their heart, yet refuse to marry or have children sufficient to defend their country, or power its economy, or fill its churches, or to obviate the need for immigration legal or illegal. Strange Patriots indeed! They curse immigrants who do our work, but refuse to have the children to do that work. Strange thinking and values indeed.
MENTAL ILLNESS: Is it not possible that those who are not marrying and having lots of children are just plain mentally ill? they violate all of the norms of nature, and violate the norms of every religion, and violate what seems to be common sense. Is that not a fairly good definition of insanity to some degree? It seems to be fair we have to at least look at that possibility.
CATHOLICS AND BIRTH CONTROL: And does not the Catholic idea that getting rid of kids with "natural" means is somehow OK, but getting rid of kids with unnatural means is not OK. Isn't such an artificial division a nutty splitting of hairs? What is the difference between having sex during a woman's period to prevent children, and using a condom to accomplish the same purpose? Circumventing the fertile cycle is specifically forbidden in Leviticus, whereas condoms are not directly mentioned in the Bible. Who does the thinking for the Pope? Maybe he should be fired. Well, yes, it is a compromise, but compromises are sometimes like being a little bit pregnant. Yes, I know Humanae Vitae dances around this for 89 pages, but at the end it was still a very fancy dance attempting to square a circle. I sympathize with their intent, but am intellectually appalled at its lack of logic.
BUT WHERE ARE THOSE PROTESTANT CHURCHES THAT OPPOSE BIRTH CONTROL? ARE THERE NONE AT ALL? EVEN THE MORMONS SEEM TO HAVE NO DOCTRINE ON THE MATTER, OTHER THAN IT IS A SIN NOT TO MARRY. WHAT ABOUT KILLING THE FRUIT OF THAT MARRIAGE.?
CHRISTIAN REACTION: Yes, there is this hostility to raising this issue in the church. It is like hitting a really sore spot, and the patient jumps through the ceiling and sort of goes ballistic, even ministers. For they of all people know what the Bible says, but don't always like what they know, and their congregation can control what they say as they control their income.
