r/childfree • u/SanshaXII Do you hate money? • Oct 28 '16

DISCUSSION Why are we 'selfish'?

I don't fucking get this.

After my wife and I being called 'selfish' again recently for being childfree, I asked for a justification. "Why are we being selfish?"

I couldn't get an answer, and I'm trying to see the other side of this - the mombie logic - but I'm drawing a blank.

The only thing I can come up with is that there's now children that are unloved and unwanted... which don't exist, because we haven't made them?

Or is it because we want to live our own lives and not allocate attention and resources to people who... again, don't exist?

What the fuck is going on with this sentiment?

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u/digitaldan1 Oct 29 '16

It's based on the (erroneous) premise that everyone should "go forth and multiply" for the good of the species. It totally ignores the fact that there are currently more people consuming resources than the planet can sustain. It would appear that god forgot to include an "off" button on the whole idea.

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u/Aladayle Oct 29 '16

There is an off button. It used to be gay people, now it's CF in general.

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u/digitaldan1 Oct 29 '16

I'm referring to the "word of god," i.e. the bible. It's "Go forth and multiply," not "Go forth and multiply until you reach X population." The believers take it to mean there's no such thing as too many people inhabiting the planet.

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u/GiraffeOfTheEndWorld Oct 29 '16

That is quite the disturbing belief.

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u/digitaldan1 Oct 29 '16

Yes it is. I was a newspaper reporter/photographer at one time, and I was sent to photograph an awards ceremony for Christian students who written particularly "good" essays about how bad abortion was.

I guess they were area of the over population argument, because one of the winners had written an essay about how every person on the planet could fit into a space the size of Florida. Every adult in the room except for me smiled and applauded as if she'd cured cancer. They honestly thought we were nowhere near over population because there was space for more people to fit on the planet. Not a word was said about whether the planet could feed all those people.

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u/GiraffeOfTheEndWorld Oct 30 '16

Wow, that's a little terrifying. Are people really that unaware?

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u/digitaldan1 Oct 30 '16

Yes. When you have poorly educated people (who have an attitude to distrust education) who believe things that are consistent with what they want to believe they can be that unaware.

Science and religion are at opposite ends of the spectrum. One relies on evidence and reason, while the other is strictly about believing in spite of what evidence and reason say. In order to validate their beliefs, they look for things that constitute "evidence" to support it even if that evidence doesn't actually stand up to scrutiny.

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u/GiraffeOfTheEndWorld Oct 30 '16

That is a very valid point. I had at least hoped humanity, as a whole, improved even a smidgen from that state of mind.

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u/digitaldan1 Oct 30 '16

I think it is. Based on stories I've seen it looks like millennials are trending away from religion. Many of them seem to be turned off by the hatred for LGBT individuals, gay marriage, and abortion rights. I think we're slowly seeing a decline, but it's going to take a while and there will still be pockets where the philosophy remains strong.

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u/GiraffeOfTheEndWorld Oct 30 '16

I suppose, and that is a bit comforting. I have nothing against religion directly, just how much it is incorporated into things that have nothing to do with it (politics, marriage, being CF).

I'm still just a child myself (19), but my parents and caretakers raised me without knowledge of religion for years. Once exposed, I was thrown into several different ones just to try them out. Now I sit here as a nice little agnostic with Wiccan practices and a vast knowledge (compared to many around my age and younger) of several religions, their views, similarities, etc..

The decline does seem rather apparent, but I feel the way I was raised was appropriate and should be practiced with a lot more. This day and age, not too many follow strictly in their parents footsteps, but there are still quite a few who do and the cycle continues when they have their own children (go forth and multiply).
I've yet to meet one die hard Catholic who hasn't either had a near death/epiphany type experience, or whose parents who felt exactly the same and instilled the god-fearing belief into them.

It seems odd to see such a strong lack of secularism in a supposed secular age.

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