Be fruitful and multiply
Published Fri, Nov 30 2007 11:50 AM
One of the very first commands given by God to his creation was "Be fruitful and multiply". When you consider it as part of a "creation myth", it's obvious that one reason for the command would be to populate the largely empty earth. There's more to it than that though.
It has been said that every living thing has a drive to reproduce. This makes sense when you look at it. No living creature, no matter how big or how small is absolutely immortal. Sure, they may have an incredibly long (relative to ours) life span, but catastrophe can always happen. For life to continue, it must reproduce and spread out to new areas.
Perhaps there isn't such a great drive to reproduce. Maybe it's just the apparent result of "natural selection". If an organism reproduces there will be more of that type of organism and if some are destroyed, there's a greater chance that others will survive than if the organism didn't reproduce.
Any organisms that didn't reproduce were probably "naturally selected" for the death of their kind over the billions of years that life has existed on our planet. The remaining organisms reproduced. So every living thing has the capability at least of reproducing.
For animal life, particularly for animal life with a nervous system, the activities that lead to reproduction are, presumably, pleasurable. It's easy to see how evolution would result in that as well. If those activities are pleasurable, it's more likely than an animal will engage in them than if there's no pleasure associated with them.
A greater percentage of animals that find pleasure in reproductive activity are likely to reproduce than of animals that don't. For animals then, it's probably accurate to say that they all have a natural drive to reproduce, if only to experience the pleasurable sensations related to it.
The first time that God commanded a portion of his creation to "be fruitful and multiply" was when he commanded the animals of the sea and the birds of the air to do so. These are the first kinds of creatures that could definitely be said to have a natural drive to reproduce.
The second time that God issued this command was to mankind. This was repeated again after the great flood. The importance of being fruitful and multiplying in order to fill the earth was obvious, and the command emphasized it.
"Children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them"
Psalm 127:3-5
Having children is expensive. Not just in terms of money, but also in terms of time. Having children also takes a large metabolic toll on the mother.
Many people today are choosing not to have children. Some women don't want to have to go through the discomfort of pregnancy and the pain of childbirth. The time investment required to raise children "interferes" with their careers. The responsibility for raising a child is too much for some fathers.
We all still want the pleasure associated with the activities that lead to reproduction though. Mankind is nothing if not innovative when it comes to getting that which he wants. Various birth control devices have been created: Everything from techniques designed to prevent conception to objects designed to prevent contraception such as condoms and diaphragms, to drugs designed to prevent conception such as birth control pills, to drugs designed to prevent implantation after conception (so called "emergency" contraception) to drugs developed to cause abortions, to the actual medical practice of abortion.
All of these to avoid the consequences of the activities that normally lead to reproduction, simply for convenience and pleasure.
If you think about it, we've gone to great lengths to fulfill the command "Be fruitful and multiply". We've also gone to great lengths to disobey that command.
There are certainly valid arguments that the world's population is getting out of hand. I think though that if it's truly the case that the population of humanity is too large that the solution isn't to stop breeding. It's to look at the command in a new light.
Be fruitful and multiply.
Put the emphasis on the first part, and not the second part.
Have children if you want. But first, do the things that you must to be able to afford them. Be responsible before you have children. Be responsible when you engage in those activities that lead to reproduction.
Don't have children if you don't have a means to support them. Don't have children if you aren't willing to invest the time and money required to raise them. Don't go and get a woman pregnant and then abandon her and the child. Don't have children simply to get a bigger welfare check from the government.
Rather than destroy life in the name of convenience and pleasure, rather than multiply without first being fruitful, take personal responsibility for your actions.
Children are a blessing. They're also an obligation. Without them, there is no future for humanity. Without seeing to their needs there is also no future for humanity.
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Christi responded with:
 | I really enjoyed this post, Perri. A lot of people forget the "be fruitful" part of the equation before rushing into "and multiply".
Thank you for a thoughtful and honest post. |
D. Ox responded with:
 | Perri, I'm drawing the line on Bloggregator associates. You need to have the bloggregator in your sidebar near the top post, and not post more than twice per day. I'll check next week. No offense, I understand we all have out priorities.
D. Ox |