atheism and children

[Pyrrho]

My wife and I have two boys (5* and 7) and all the standard cliches about how kids are equally wonderful and exasperating apply.

Your comment about atheists being "anti-kids" is the sort of comment that cements my opinion that anecdotal evidence is not very useful most of the time.

On a side note, my wife and I are an infertile couple (well actually it's just me) and both of our children were conceived through IVF.

The teachings with regards to IVF of your beloved Church piss me off. If a Catholic ever suggests to me that my beautiful, amazing boys are the sinful byproduct of immoral and illicit acts, or that we are somehow a lesser family, I will punch them square in the nose.

This is just one of the many things about the Catholic Church that make me greatly appreciate Minimalist's sig.

*technically 4.92 yrs old, but we're already planning the birthday part, so I'm calling him 5.

See, and that's the strange part to me. You get angry at people who think IVF is not moral, but Pyrrho (and others here) just straight up said they think having kids is immoral and that they look down on people who have kids. No outrage there?

I do not see IVF as any worse than the usual method.  To me, IVF or not is irrelevant, and so my guess is that Javaman is less perturbed with me than with those who are prejudiced against that method of conception (though obviously, Javaman may speak for himself).  I do not regard Javaman's family as a lesser family from families that have produced children the usual way.  (Also, obviously, "less perturbed" does not mean "not perturbed.")

And if you are good at searching threads, you can find that some have expressed disagreement with me on my position, even if they do not bother to in this thread (though there is plenty of time for people to do that in the future, if they wish).  I recognize the fact that most people disagree with me.  If that were to influence me to change my mind, I would be committing a fallacy known as argumentum ad populum.

I do personally know someone who has a child who now regrets the decision, now thinking that the world is not a proper place to bring children into.  Of course, he does not say that to his child, as it is done and cannot be undone.  And he dearly loves his child.  Frankly, he seems to be a very good father (not that it matters for the discussion).