How can you justify having kids at any time during history?

There’s got to be better and worse times to have kids though, right?

Is there no difference at all between times of plenty and a future where the next generation starves?
Or between knowing your child will be privileged vs knowing they will be slaves?

I had some struggles with this, most significantly because there’s a lot of crippling depression in our families. Sort of made me want to just have one so we could devote the necessary resources to fixing it.

Because God’s first command to man was to have sex and make babies (Genesis 1:28)

Fingers crossed he didn’t make any perilous commands

We make things perilous enough on our own.

I know that’s a popular take on those words, but I really don’t understand why.

It sounds like way out of context to me. Like clearly He was just talking to a few people, and wanted them multiply in order to populate the earth, but then at some point the Earth is populated, right?

Kind of reminds me of a sci-fi story where you command an AI to “make paper-clips” and it starts consuming more and more resources to make more and more paperclips, eventually killing everybody and turning the corpses into paperclips.

So at what point did earth’s population go from “a few people” to “populated”? Would you claim to know God’s point of view on this topic?

I think the threshold was met after we got dominion over the plants and animals. I read it as a thing that happened in Genesis, like how the world came to be.

I agree that it’s extremely vague, and very frustrating as an actuary. That said, it’s still on us to try to understand what He wants.

Or…

Or we should read the old testament with a grain pillar of salt.

whoops, let’s try that again

I think ranger was trying to agree with you.

I think you are assuming that God would say “populated” and then spell out exactly what counts as populated and fruitful and dominion and so forth, which frankly doesn’t seem like Him. Genesis is not a BRD.

I get that you don’t want to misinterpret him, but taking everything literally and out of context is also a form of interpretation.

Would you claim to know Ranger’s point of view on this topic?!

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BRD?

Looking at words similiar to the word used in that verse, our job would seem to be to “fill” the earth or make it “full”. Sure, its ambiguous. But if God intended to increase the size of His family, I imagine he wants as many as possible - but gives us the choice.

Also, if we are bringing any biblical principles into the equation, the eternal afterlife is the real goal. Even if the conditions in the world are miserable, it is just a temporary suffering.

Guessing it’s the initialism for Business Requirements Document.

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I agree God, the Father is not very concerned with suffering. He has his own agenda, and it’s weird. IIRC, this is not long before he flooded the world and killed everybody anyway?

Anyway, whatever God’s actual goals are, he does often command people to make the Earth a better place. Many of the Old Testament commands/laws are built around improving life (sort of) and the New Testament is very concerned with love and charity.

I think it would more compelling to me if He was clearly commanding people, like in leviticus or something. Rather than just part of the creation story.

I didn’t say that God wasn’t concerned with suffering. I think He is concerned, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be someone’s lot in life. And in many cases it’s probably our own doing anyway.

This isn’t completely clear (that is was very shortly afterwards). I’m now learning about what Genesis 6 is referring to and why there were giants in the Bible and why God wanted all these people groups done away with - it makes some more sense now, though I’m only barely beginning to understand.

I don’t remember reading about “there are too many people” in the Bible anywhere. God tells Abraham his descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore (Gen 22:17). Sure some places in the world are crowded, but there is still a lot of empty space out there for more people. Lord knows the population of West Des Moines isn’t getting any smaller…

Ok, bible studies is over.

We could fit everyone in the world in a space a bit bigger than Rhode Island. It doesn’t end well, though. :slight_smile:

More seriously - I doubt anyone that is really concerned about overpopulation thinks it’s a real estate problem. It’s more of a resources and impact on the environment thing.

Well, sure, there’s also no electric cars and glofish in the bible. Overpopulation is a new concept. I just meant it strikes as weird to assume God was talking to us here and now, and not the people in the story of Genesis. What if He had said “go forth and multiply, and make sure you cut off your goat’s horns before sacrificing it”. Would you try to do both of those things today? What about “go conquer [such and such town] and enslave their children and wives?”

To me most things in the OT are God telling people to do things, and then those people did the things (or more often failed to do the things). Not God telling us to do things now.