Over on Dalrock’s comments, there’s an interesting conversation about the prospect of surrogacy and technology allowing single men to conceive and raise motherless children. Dalrock is a religious blog, and naturally, people look to the New Testament for guidance. It’s particularly murky on this topic, though.
honeycomb sez to Billy…
We disagree .. unless you can show me with scripture that it’s evil.
(Rather than cite a specific source, Billy made a general statement, then alluded to honeycomb being an idiot)
honeycomb retorts…
Ah yes the ole personal attack & no supporting documentation bit.
While I don’t share Billy’s personal sentiments (i.e. I don’t think either honeycomb or AT are idiots), honeycomb is asking for something that no reasonable person would expect to find in the New Testament. The bible is a product of its age, and the thinkers who produced it had no reason to denounce men masturbating into a sex robot, then producing a motherless kid via an artificial placenta.
Lots of things aren’t listed in the bible that would be, if someone was writing it today. (Weird trannies being allowed in the girls’ public toilet, the prevalence of S&M sex play, nose piercings, etc.)
Either honeycomb has adopted AT’s fallacy, that everything not specifically prohibited in the text is explicitly permitted (thoroughly debunked by a guy named Lyn87, over a year ago) or he knows some part of the bible which allows for motherless kids to become a societal norm. I’ve never seen this allowance myself.
So is bringing a motherless child into the world sinful? I don’t personally have an opinion on that. I think it’s for the religious bros to try and work out what qualifies as sin. Is it socially destructive? I think it certainly is. Any kid brought into the world in these circumstances will desperately want the love and example that a decent mother provides her children. S/he will look around at other kids who seem to take this situation for granted, and will feel deeply hurt by the lack of it in his/her own life. That wounding will not go away. It will likely result in deviant behavior. This is almost understandable to me. Why should such a child grow up feeling invested in a society which s/he doesn’t identify with?
Now, guys who promote this have a couple of choices. They can be inverted feminists, and demand that every child be stripped of his/her mother (the way kooky feminists do now, demanding that father’s day be abolished, &c.) They might also try to start a separate society made up only of single fathers (women don’t have the strength or foresight to do this, but I think men might try it). Either way, their kids will ultimately pay the price for their narcissism.