Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Christian Futurist's avatar

One of the ways in which the "IVF tends to lead to weaker communities" argument sort of works is to note that religious communities (who are more cautious in their use of technologies like IVF) tend to be stronger and in that sense more human communities than that observed in the wider culture.

My own take on the issue of technology is that I do think Catholics go too far in their anti-technicratic views. Technology can be compatible with nature, in fact technology can enhance existing natural functions. Good use of technology augments and builds on that which is natural instead of destroying it. Instead of uprooting existing technologies, we should be considering how to use/adapt them in a way which helps us live in a truly human way.

Expand full comment
IceFl4re -'s avatar

Another:

1. Hanania practically says that there are no concrete evidences that supports social conservatives' arguments.

There are lots if one wants to look at it:

Fornication:

- [Only one out of three children born to cohabiting parents remains in a stable family through age 12, in contrast to nearly three out of four children born to married parents.](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4768758/)

- [On average, children living with cohabiting biological parents fare worse on several social, psychological, and educational outcomes than children born to married parents, even after controlling for factors like race, household income, and parental education.](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3091824/)

- [Adolescents of parents who cohabited were at higher risk for externalizing relationship dissolution and relationship instability symptoms 10 years later compared to children of married parents. In addition, cohabiting mothers who stayed with their partner over the 10 years showed significantly greater declines in relationship adjustment over the 10 years compared to married mothers.](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.746306/full)

- [IN FINLAND, where cohabitation is more common than marriages, Cohabiting parents had more depressive symptoms than married parents. They were also less satisfied with their relationships and expressed less satisfaction with the quality of support they got from their partner.](https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/11/4/181)

(This one also debunks his claim that "I don't see much family breakdown in Europe" -> Screw that, the family is deader than dodo in Europe. More people fornicate than marry there)

- [Nearly three decades of research evaluating the impact of family structure on the health and well-being of children demonstrates that children living with their married, biological parents consistently have better physical, emotional, and academic well-being.](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4240051/)

Promiscuity:

- [Sexual and emotional infidelity are positively correlated, Sexual and emotional promiscuity are positively correlated](https://www.athensjournals.gr/social/2017-4-4-3-Pinto.pdf).

- [(1) couples who have premarital children are more likely to divorce; (2) the higher the number of children, the more stable the marriage, but the marginal effect declines with the increase of the number of children; (3) younger children reduce the risk of divorce more than older ones; and (4) couples who have sons are less likely to divorce](https://journalofchinesesociology.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40711-015-0003-0)

- [Simple cross-tabulations from the 1988 National Survey of Family Growth indicate that women who were sexually active prior to marriage faced a considerably higher risk of marital disruption than women were were virgin brides.... These results suggest that the positive relationship between premarital sex and the risk of divorce can be attributed to prior unobserved differences (e.g., the willingness to break traditional norms) rather than to a direct causal effect.](https://doi.org/10.2307/352992)

- [We find the relationship between premarital sex and divorce is highly significant and robust even when accounting for early-life factors. Compared to people with no premarital partners other than eventual spouses, those with nine or more partners exhibit the highest divorce risk, followed by those with one to eight partners. There is no evidence of gender differences.](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0192513X231155673#bibr25-0192513X231155673)

- [Women who have more premarital sex partners have significantly greater odds of serial cohabiting (indicating that cohabitation is addictive)](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2003.00444.x)

- [Adolescent premarital coitus has a strong negative effect on the self-reported academic grades and affects negatively the importance placed on going to college among white females](https://www.jstor.org/stable/2786919?seq=19#metadata_info_tab_contents)

- [Early initiators had an increased likelihood of having had multiple sex partners, been involved in a pregnancy, forced a partner to have sex, had frequent intercourse and had sex while drunk or high.](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11804436/)

- [Premarital cohabitation predicts a substantially higher rate of marital dissolution](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43545-021-00146-1)

- [Structural equation modeling indicated that casual sex was negatively associated with well-being and positively associated with psychological distress](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23742031/)

- [Depressive symptoms were associated with engaging in casual sex differently for males and females. Males who engaging in casual sex reported the fewest symptoms of depression and females who had a history of casual sex reported the most depressive symptoms](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17599248/)

- [We found that suicidal ideation and depressive symptoms in adolescence were associated with entrance into casual sexual relationships in emerging adulthood. Furthermore, casual sexual relationships were associated with an increased likelihood of reporting suicidal ideation in emerging adulthood.](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258145972_Casual_Sexual_Relationships_and_Mental_Health_in_Adolescence_and_Emerging_Adulthood)

Cont in reply to this comment

Expand full comment
11 more comments...

No posts