Do stupid people have more children? What are the implications?

by AlmostAtheist 55 Replies latest jw friends

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  doogie

  You must feel desperately special to believe you are good enough to replicate yourself.

  is that how it works? if so, i'll just shoot myself now cuz my dad is a jack@ss.
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  RunningMan

  Well, there are a number of cultural issues that influence family size. But, as a general principle, if you look at countries around the world, you will find that the more developed a country becomes, the lower the birthrate drops. It's not money or intelligence that does it - it is the education of women. Whenever an underdeveloped country begins to improve the education level of its women, the birthrate drops. This could be due to women spending less time in the home, building careers, aspiring to goals other than motherhood, or any number of other reasons.
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  AlmostAtheist

  You must feel desperately special to believe you are good enough to replicate yourself.

  That's an interesting viewpoint, I've never thought of it that way. In fact, I've often thought (since deciding this life is all I get) that if I had it to do over again I might choose not to have children, and it would be THAT decision that was egotistical and selfish, on the lines of "I don't want to give up 25 years of my precious life to raise another human."

  But now that you mention it, the reason Gina and I had a child (and another) is because we wanted to. It does have a selfish sound to it, eh?

  Zach is 7yrs old, Sierra is 13 months. (I'm 432 months, and Gina is.... not.)

  Dave
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  lonelysheep

  It does seem that way sometimes, Dave...that there are tons of stupid people everywhere!
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  AlmostAtheist

  It's not money or intelligence that does it - it is the education of women. Whenever an underdeveloped country begins to improve the education level of its women, the birthrate drops.

  That makes one hell of a lot of sense. And I can adjust my understanding of what I've seen based on it and everything still fits. Lovely.

  Stupid people and severely uneducated people are hard to tell apart until you try to educate them. Walking by them at Wal-mart, I'm sure I couldn't tell the difference.

  Dave
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  GetBusyLiving

  Do creationists have more children than athiests?

  GBL
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  alreadygone

  Do the stupid people with large families that I've been exposed to have them because they decided to, or because they failed to decide not to?

  Because they failed to decide not to. The stupidest thing I have ever heard is "accidental pregnancy". There is no such thing!!! We all know what causes pregnancy. If you don't want to have children, there are steps that can be taken to ensure this doesn't happen. I do realize that birth control can fail, but alas this too can be thwarted. It is called abstinence if you are that serious about not having kids.

  Yes, part of the "conscience decision to have a large family" is the means to be able to support it. I too get very irritated when I see families on public assistance spitting out babies like it is their personal responsibility to populate the entire earth.
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  AlmostAtheist

  Yes, part of the "conscience decision to have a large family" is the means to be able to support it.

  I hope you didn't think I was questioning that, clearly from your post you had your bases covered in that respect. Having two kids, I can't understand how anyone can possibly maintain their sanity with 5, 6, or *16*... <shudder>... but if you can swing it, you have my respect, not my derision.

  The other thread doogie mentioned and the link with in were all interesting reading. If you've not checked them out, it's worth a quick looksee.

  Dave
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  twinflame

  Wow, I had to think long and hard about this one. My husband (current JW) and I (practicing Apostate) are of well above average intelligence and had a very large family. Could it be because we were stupid enough to believe the bullsh*t published in the Watchtower years ago that more or less forbid sterilization if a man was ever to be considered for any position in the congregation; actually comparing someone who had the procedure to a eunuch of Bible times? Hmmmm.....yes, I feel like a dumbass sometimes for ever having believed any of it now. And yes, I know there was birth control available, but unfortunately not the type you could take and breastfeed so at least I enjoyed some natural child spacing.

  I am happy to report that we were never a part of the welfare system but even more importantly, none of our children grew up to be JWs; now those, IMHO, are very intelligent offspring.

  In conclusion, intelligent people can be brainwashed to do incredibly stupid things but as for this post....I personally don't see a correlation between family size and intelligence.
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  Stefanie

  I would say yes.. From personal experience... LMAO