>
> 1) The Catholic Church does not insist that you "breed and breed."
So why do people in some countries still do it?
>
> 2) The Catholic Church has not taught the "rhythm method" in many years.
>
I stand corrected.
> 3) The Catholic Church does advocate Natural Family Planning, which uses
> changes in the female's body temperature and cervical fluid to detect
> ovulation. It is over 90% effective, and is statistically comparable to
> the effectiveness of other contraception methods - even when they are used
> properly. Natural Family Planning has the advantage of being cheap, and
> having no risk of side effects.
Good. Talk the MExicans into using it. I know *first* world countries that
are predoinantly Catholic have stabilized their populations (or their
populations are even going down!) Yeah, I've heard of NFP but I think the
article I read caled it "getting the rhythm method to work ;-)) And you'd
need some practice before you got the efficacy up to 90 percent.
>
> The Church has no problem with birth control, and choosing to have only a
> few children. It just has a problem with artificial methods of birth
> control.
>
ok, should clarify myself, i knnew that....they used to teach the rhythm
method whan that was the best they could do, years ago....
>
> P.S. I would place a very good bet that you don't really "know" the
> theological basis for family planning. It is an incredibly rich and
> detailed theology - even if I don't always buy all of his arguments. I
> spent some time studying it a few months ago, and even I had a rough time
> grasping all of it......
Well, "family planning" (versus just having as many s you can) is a pretty
recent development isn't it? The world didn't used to be so
over-populated. Hey, Rome fell and it was the dark ages and people needed
lots of babies once....SO how could there be such a theological basis for
something so relatively new?
i take it you mean the theology of *sex*? Or of procreation. I know they
teach that you shouldn't separate "conjugal love" from the possibility of
procreation. And yeah, I once spoke to a priest (social situation not
religious) who said sexual climax (within marriage) is God giving you a
taste of heaven for a bit...something like that. Isn't that what they
teach?
Of course I don't know much Catholic theology. I am no from that
background. So, so, I said the wrong words. But unlike politics when we ar
etalking religion it isn't a thing where you can just say "I am
rational/scientific and you are not" because religion by *definition* is
not about that kind of thing. (Um, I know Aquinas had one POV on the
relationship between reason and religion. Other philosophers and
theologians saw it differently, but not all of them were Catholic.)
Did you engage in a lot of religious studies John? I mean everybody's
supposed to learn the basic catechetics and Catholic colleges have special
sections of their religion courses for people who went to parochial school
(at least mine did...i mean did you know that latho raised really liberal
protesant I went to a Jesuit college? LIberal political climate. Hey, so
PC you could fulfill your three-religion-courses requirement without any
of them being Catholic or even Christian.)
look, i'd rather learn real heavy duty religion from a professional. Are
you a "lay theologian?" but I don't bleong to your church, so I'm not
exactly going to attend religioln classes there. (Might be useful to know
if i ever *married* a Catholic, but I'm not even remotely in love with
one.)
Okay, Ok, I'll go pick on the MOrmons instead. Any Mormons here? My mother
isn't a Mormon, but she's a childbirth educator and she says Mormons
believe there are souls up in heaven waiting to be born which is why you
should have many children. I don't know where she heard that, but I do
know Mormons oppose contraception and DO tend to have large
families. Well, at least they educate them so they're not just a burden
on society. But between the birth rate and quasi-military stints in the
misisonary corps for their young adults (proselytizing) do you think there
is a high mathematical probability that the Mormons will outbreed
everybody and take over the world? i don't mean politically so much as
being the overwhelmingly dominant faith? (It is the fastest grwoing
religion...)
Kristin
(By the way, you guys have come a long way since Saint Augustine, haven't
you? What would *he* have thought of the current marriage-theology? I mean
sex isn't considered so dirty/evil for married people but the clergy re
stil celibate.)
(David Brin once told me and some others "If thinking it is the same as
doing it there are no men in Heaven." If you want to argue that, argue it
with him not me....i think you and DB are still on speaking terms
JDG.....arent you?)
