I've been thinking a lot and reading a lot about choosing not to have children, what many people call being "childfree" (instead of "childless," which implies that not having a child means you are lacking). I've gone to numerous blogs and websites, though my favorite one so far is childfreedom. I like the blog so much I've posted to it multiple times over the past two weeks, and I'd like to respond to some of the stuff there in this very blog.
I find a lot of the childfree arguments compelling, much more than the reasons to have children, though I can't quite agree with all of the childfree reasoning. I don't want to drink the pronatalism Kool-Aid, but that doesn't mean I'm going to chug the dark cherry childfree stuff either. I guess I'm looking to whip up my own batch.
Temujin,
ReplyDeleteHave you read about the philosophical position of the antinatalists?
Antinatalism - Wikipedia
-MM
Intriguing. I'm sympathetic to and in agreement with some of the arguments suggested there, but not all. I irrationally and stubbornly cling to life and to being in some way engaged with society and the world, as awful as it all seems to be. My main motives for being childfree are:
ReplyDelete1. "I just don't want one of those."
and
2. "The way you feel about it or who's in the majority or what God/The Earth/society needs makes no difference to me. See #1."
I would like to read further. I don't know if I'm antinatalist right now so much as anti-pronatalist.
ReplyDeleteHypothetically, there could be "lesser harm" theological defense for having a child. I don't know of any religions that posit this idea, but it could be that when you're born into this world your soul leaves Hell for a while, then when you die your soul goes back to Hell. Maybe being alive on this planet is the best possibility in a totally crappy universe. However awful material human existence is, maybe the "world beyond" is even worse!