There is also too many assumptions in some of the statements regarding third world countries, poverty, and birthrates. When the only form of farming relies on manual labor, a large family may actually help them beat poverty. It may be the only way to survive into old age.

Clearly, you haven't had to attend mucus class. It ain't nothing, my friend.

 

(all the Catholics in here know what I mean)

 

Oh heck ya I do!

Let me just get this one straight...

 

What you're saying is that Catholicism is a "stupid religion" that encourages "poor people to have tons of kids"???

 

I totally apologize for the stupid religion comment. It was out of line and I was wrong to say it.

 

I do believe however, that catholicism encourages poor people to have large families. The argument that someone made about agrarian families needing to be large to do the work of the farm is a good one, but I don't believe that to be the case of many third-world (specifically latin american) countries all of which have been mostly catholic since the Spanish missionaries conquered them. All religions have their followers under a kind of spell, believing mostly silly doctrine, but I think Catholicism is the worst offender. I wasn't familiar with the mucus method, until that pdf, but readng it as well as the other "natural" methods advocated by those sites, it's clear to me how complicated those processes are. I don't see how a third-world worker in some latin american country or an illegal mexican immigrant here in the states, many of which cannot even read, can understand these complex procedures. Until the church changes its view on sex as not only being used for procreational purposes and embraces artificial contraception as a population control, they will be in effect keeping these people in the squalor they're in instead of helping them rise above it.

 

It's just an example of what religions do best - preaching ethereal theology instead of focusing on the "issues on the ground" and the people they actually affect.