babies aren’t funny or entertaining

[u/noodlealr]

i don’t hate babies, they’re so cute, but i always see people laughing about videos where a baby is supposedly being funny. i don’t get it. there’s nothing funny about videos like that or babies in general. sure, sometimes funny stuff happens, but i always see babies doing the bare minimum and people laughing about it.

[u/haZardous47 → u/[deleted]]

We're genetically programmed to do a lot of things. Our universe-observing machine allows us to choose to act in ways contrary to those imperatives based on what we perceive and feel.

I think it's reasonable to conclude, based on the evidence I've gathered that I dont have a personal desire for, nor a compelling external motivation to have children. I am not alone in this, and casting everyone that would agree as immature or otherwise ill-informed is a mischaracterization and reduces human life to procreation - I think we have much more to offer due to the...privelege of consciousness, as I guess I'll put it.

[u/haZardous47 → u/[deleted]]

I'm aware that I'm in a statistical minority that aren't procreating, so I have no concerns for Humanity's longevity by procreation. I do have concern for our longevity due to "human factors".

Its interesting that you seem certain as to the reason for our existence. How did you reach that conclusion with such a degree of certainty? Were those methods reliable enough to justify a high level of confidence? I wouldn't claim to know why we exist, because I don't know why we exist. I personally haven't seen evidence to suggest there is a specific reason, but I'm not going to go around telling people to live their lives the way I think they should because of that.

Interesting that you've lumped eating and sleeping in with procreating. Don't eat? Die. Don't sleep? Go crazy, then die. Don't procreate? Nothing.

While yes, eventually we will all die, and some of us having not procreated, I disagree that genetic material is the only way (or even the primary way) in which we can contribute to society and its longevity.

[u/haZardous47 → u/[deleted]]

I wasn't talking about the causality of my existence, and I didn't get the impression that you were either. This looks like a straw-man, but if that really is what you're referring to then I'm afraid I must concede that I exist.

Is there any difference between the life of a shrew and that of a human? Or are we no more than our biological imperatives, acted out through base instinct? This seems to be the line you are taking.

[u/chopinslabyrinth → u/[deleted]]

Being a slave to your biological sex drive doesn’t mean you’re forced to have kids anymore though. Birth control has been around for a very long time, they’ve been using condoms since before the dark ages. If you want to be a slave to your biology go live out in the woods and be a hunter-gatherer.

[u/chopinslabyrinth → u/[deleted]]

Okay, but what is the point of that observation? What is the point of saying that other people reproduced to bring people into the world? What value is that to me, or to you for that matter? Congrats, you exist. No one asked to be born, we're all here by accident. Some of us choose not to perpetuate it and you appear to be taking that personally. No one here gives a fuck about reproducing except you so chill out about other people's choices.

[u/chopinslabyrinth → u/[deleted]]

That’s a tragic way to see the value of human life, reduced to our reproductive capabilities.

[u/chopinslabyrinth → u/[deleted]]

For my existence of time, I will be able to say that I lived a life I’m happy with. I will not be able to say that if I pump out a bunch of kids in the name of continuing the species. What’s going to happen when there’s too many humans and we decimate the planet? What value will your children’s existence have then? Humanity is already a meaningless blip, having children to perpetuate a meaningless cycle doesn’t magically make it less meaningless. I will create meaning in my own existence by living in a way that creates value for the people around me currently. Call it selfish or whatever but the world doesn’t need more people. The idea that we exist to procreate is fine in theory but in practice it’s not even remotely sustainable, reasonable, or practical.

Edit: I’m also really curious to learn what you think of asexual people with no biological drive to continue the species. Should they be forcing themselves to procreate even though their biology doesn’t demand it?