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Bob's avatar

Honestly coming from this from the perspective of a recent, curious, but generally uninformed convert, I developed a question I'm not sure would occur to someone who is more involved with the faith. How can people possibly be natalist, that is, have children, in such a world as this?

I do not mean this in the "climate change/war/Earthly suffering" way. I mean, if you're enduring spiritual agony for every harm you cause your loved ones, and your loved ones are in actual peril of Purgatory and Hell, how can you possibly work to create more of them? I understand that we are told we should, in general, be fruitful and multiply, but creating new life seems at best incredibly perilous and possibly a dice roll on feeding the Devil more victims.

Overall I've always been a natalist, if a virgin one, under the assumption that I'm happy to exist, and I can assume most people would rather exist than not exist. However, I do suffer from clinical depression and am greatly concerned about harm I could cause to a wife and child or children due to my mental illness, so have refrained from taking steps to marry or have a family partly out of deliberation and partly due to the depression itself making general action more difficult.

It seems like the scale of the challenge and risk of life is blown up beyond all sensible risk-taking if the vision described from this near-death experience is literal and accurate. Anything besides something close to monastic life seems ridiculous if I could behave rationally and consistently, which admittedly I can't.

I am curious of your more informed opinion, based on much longer and deeper Christianity, and as a mother with a number of children and researcher of near-death experiences, on if and why my concerns are wrong.

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RAD's avatar

I imagine it must rankle the devil - proud spirit that he is - to play the harmless fool

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