A Depressing “Take” on life from this article

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If everyone everywhere stopped having children would we suddenly receive some global spiritual message? Or would spirits just incarnate on other planets?

I think that question assumes a degree of power and control that I'm tempted to think our human selves (or the human part of our selves) don't have. "We" wouldn't get on board with such a program, i.e. Spirit without and through us would not allow that, unless that course of evolution was part of a divine plan. And so it's useless worrying about the anti-natalists. (IMO of course.)

I think that question assumes a degree of power and control that I'm tempted to think our human selves (or the human part of our selves) don't have. "We" wouldn't get on board with such a program, i.e. Spirit without and through us would not allow that, unless that course of evolution was part of a divine plan. And so it's useless worrying about the anti-natalists. (IMO of course.)

I mean I can't imagine it being a plausible proposal, but if we simply cannot stop ourselves b/c we'd be compelled by some higher power...that makes the world something like a prison...

I feel pretty damn ethically validated about my choice to partner with my wife to bring our three children into the world.

Love is a pretty powerful ethical force in my simple view.

[Ninshub]

I mean I can't imagine it being a plausible proposal, but if we simply cannot stop ourselves b/c we'd be compelled by some higher power...that makes the world something like a prison...

Perhaps... depending on the (soul or human) perspective. 

[Ninshub]

I'm not sure I can take philosophers in their cushy tenured jobs as seriously as the single mother in poverty who works multiple jobs to support her children, the reformed child soldier who seeks to correct their conditioning, or all the other people in some hard to terrible circumstances who still hold a smile and cares for others.

Going back to the OT, for me it's not only that I can't take them seriously because they're professional philosophers, but the entire thing is, given my worldview now, ridiculously off-base because it's once again based on the view of matter and physical life as all there is, never mind any talk of a Creator Source. It may be motivated by well-meaning love/sympathy (concern for suffering), but it also therefore necessarily comes across as silly hubris that humans (egos) can remake and have the "world" as they see fit.

This thread is making me think of this classic cartoon! (Daffy Duck vs. his Source...)

Everyone one of us is going to checkout anyway, seems hugely unimportant, other than the fact they are priming you to move away from healthcare, and bringing forward euthanasia.

A better question is why bring more kids into this world in the first place?

Going back to the OT, for me it's not only that I can't take them seriously because they're professional philosophers, but the entire thing is, given my worldview now, ridiculously off-base because it's once again based on the view of matter and physical life as all there is, never mind any talk of a Creator Source. It may be motivated by well-meaning love/sympathy (concern for suffering), but it also therefore necessarily comes across as silly hubris that humans (egos) can remake and have the "world" as they see fit.

Since humans have been given this world to work with for well and good and also for folly, injustice, and great suffering, as a part of this carte blanche gift humans appear at this point (barring potential catastrophes like global warming) to be poised to control their biology to the extent that the birthrate will be eventually controlled at a much lower total population than at present. No spiritual forces have so far stepped in to prevent the considerable lowering of birthrate in developed countries especially like Japan and the Nordic nations, and it seems a trend that is spreading all over the world. This developing trend is the result of high medical technology and also material prosperity and better education enabling potential parents to limit their number of offspring (or to have no children at all) in order to maximize their quality of life. This trend is also causing considerable societal problems.

It appears that the rise of improved education and better quality of life due to advances in technology and productivity have been indirectly partly achieving the anti-natalists' goal of no births at all, with so far no outside higher spiritual forces intervening.

You would think that this trend, which drastically limits the potential number of human bodies available for the souls' embodiment on the Earth, would have been prevented by the "powers that be" if it were within their power and assuming they greatly desire the Earth experience for as many souls as possible. But instead, it looks as if (in your words), "humans (egos) can (indeed) remake and have the "world" as they see fit". Regardless of whether or not this development really is a drastic spiritual error.

Of course, there is one other major trend or force in the human world that is developing toward a drastic lowering of the population (and therefore the opportunities for soul embodiment) - anthropogenic global warming, which looks to be a man-made catastrophe of epic proportions. Again, no apparent stepping in by higher spiritual forces to prevent it. It appears that their policy is "hands off - let them learn from their mistakes, or perhaps we will just have to go somewhere else". Other potential catastrophes also exist such as global nuclear war and unstoppable bioresearch-generated pandemics.
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I have a hard time seeing why a God/Source or even "higher" spiritual entities would make the scenario of this world and its suffering better.

It's either sadistic (and masochistic?) or so alien as to be largely incomprehensible. If I wake up and it's all been akin to a video game...I would wonder what the point of it was. Entertainment for my eternally bored "higher" self seems to be the only good answer, that or it's a training ground for some other society that I live in as a "higher" being...which raises all sorts of questions as well.

Even as someone who believes in Survival it just seems to a be system that has little discernible logic, to the point where my best answer is different spiritual entities incarnate into this world for their own purposes. Eric Weiss has suggested the world is a nexus point for varied spiritual realms, which makes a certain sense to me...