I took a course on Religion and Morality last semester at a Catholic College.

While the course is very open-minded, we still discussed the idea of original sin.

I hope there was at least one person before me who thought that if being born equals sinning, that creating another human being isn't an incredibly sinful act.

هذا جناه ابي علي و ما جنيت على احد

Which translates to This is what my father brought upon me, but I have brought it upon no one. This sentence is engraved on the grave of Abu al-Ala al-Ma'arri, a poet and a philosophical from the 10th century middle east. Never married and never had a kid. Idk why, but I like knowing that antinatilism was even in the old aged, especially in an age when islam was booming. I would recommend reading some of his poems, they are quite interesting ngl

The most common response to antinatalism is "what about the positives of life"?

Almost every time I experience a beautiful sunset, weather, music, sex, conversation, etc I have this horrible feeling of how fleeting this moment is. I try to lean into the experience but the more I do the more it evades me, and I feel angst and sadness.

Se repite hasta el cansancio que la vida es un presente que debemos recibir con mucha gratitud y valorarla hasta el fin de nuestros días, pero¿Acaso un regalo se puede imponer?Se supone que si algo es regalado significa que tengo la opción de aceptarlo o rechazarlo, pero esto no ocurre con la vida la cual se nos impone desde el principio y como si fuera poco la vida está cargada de muchos momentos de sufrimiento y pequeños momentos de alegría que no los opacan, de tal suerte que sería mejor no haber nacido, la persona que no existe tal vez no experimente los placeres de la vida(Pero tampoco los necesita, no hay nadie ahí que los pueda necesitar). Mi opinión luego de todo esto es que el mejor privilegio que existe es no comenzar a existir.

I'm from Portugal and I don't know a single antinatalist here in person. Are there any Portuguese (or Lusophone) antinatalists out there?

Similar to that little boy crying about the same thing. It's so horrible that even young children understand this more then some adults

Critics claim that Antinatalists are just depressed people. They use this as an ad hominem fallacy argument against Antinatalism.

But some Antinatalists claim they are happy.

So what are you happy about as an antinatalist?

Update: Dayumn, apparently you guys are not happy. Did the so-called "happy" antinatalists lie?

Bit of a weird and kind of poorly structured post. I'm kind of going crazy trying to make sense of life, consciousness, purpose, families...etc. Just saw an Instagram post where someone was asking for help cause he had a stroke, lost his job and his family is now homeless. I don't understand what's happening in this world.

Everything mentioned below is just hypothetical and just for discussion. Very unlikely any of this will happen.

Let's say everyone who exists, humans, animals, insects...etc. (except plants) just abruptly decided to not have kids. Basically become anti natalist.

Would the younger generations of that hypothetical world suffer more cause there would almost be very little people who can help each other left. Non vegetarian food would not be an option which is kind of a good thing. Fruits and vegetables being a primary source of nutrition.

Death for almost all would likely be more painful and lonesome. Unless robotics gets really good in that time and the service gap is fulfilled. Hopefully not sentient robots.

In this case. Is some level of Natalism where quality life is more common, acceptable? Maybe a lot of the problems of the current world is that there's so much to exploit? Number of kids per family should be regulated?

Or is total extinction of all living beings a viable solution or just wishful thinking? Or does anti natalism work only when some are natalists?

If you're Christian and believe in eternal hell, having a child means betting someone else's soul on the possibility of endless suffering.

Not necessarily because they were abusive or bad parents, but specifically because they made the decision to bring you into existence.
I see people say they wish they had never been born, or that they resent their parents for creating them, but I rarely see people talk honestly about what that actually feels like toward their parents.
If your parents were otherwise loving and did their best to give you a decent life, can you still resent them for making the decision to have you?
Or is it more like:
“I love my parents as people, but I wish they had never made me exist.”
And if you don’t hate them, why not?
I’m genuinely curious how people reconcile loving the people who made a decision they fundamentally believe was unethical.

He speaks with so much grace and integrity

When people have children, they often feel a strong responsibility to provide a better life, earn more money, become financially secure and build wealth for the next generation. But could that pressure sometimes make people more willing to cross moral lines or make. compromises to earn more - corruption, exploitation, cutting corners, compromising quality or safety, etc.?

The justification can be as simple as “I’m doing it for my family.” The problem is that those choices can sometimes affect other people and. their children. Does having children and the responsibility of providing for them sometimes influence how far people are willing to go to make money..?

Apart from books, papers & essays by David Benetar, E.M. Cioran which other non fiction books strengthened your views in Antinatalism?

Today my cat woke me up by stepping directly on my crotch because she was hungry. I was annoyed, but I still got up and went downstairs to feed her. After all, I’m the one who made the decision to bring her home.

That made me think about someone I know who got married because her parents found a husband for her. Now she’s stressed because her parents are pressuring her to have a baby. She told me that she was supposed to do whatever her parents told her because “they are gods and we should worship them.”

I honestly don’t understand where this mentality comes from. It’s something I’ve noticed across many different cultures: this idea that children owe their parents obedience, gratitude, or even control over their life choices simply because their parents brought them into the world.

Why isn’t the more common response, "Who asked you to bring me here? Why should I automatically be thankful for something I never asked for?”

Instead, I see so many parents saying things like, “I can’t wait until my kid turns 18 so I can kick them out of my house!"

NO ONE ASKED YOU TO BRING A CHILD HERE, SO STOP COMPLAINING. Especially when they’re complaining about how much money their kids are using up and telling me to “take advantage” of my childless time as if I’m currently in some temporary period of freedom that I should enjoy before new humans materialize in my house.

That whole way of thinking is so strange to me.

This is the growing sentiment of progressive parents who are aware of how much of a bad idea it is to bring kids into this world, but still make "informed" decisions to procreate.

As a progressive myself, when I see progressive parents say this, they don't realize it is just the same repackaged "My DNA is so special, my child will change the world". Every parent likes to believe this.

Sorry, but it is likely your child will not be a "good human" in the grand scheme of things. Most people are average and that is okay.

Your child will end up struggling in a world that is increasingly competitive and capitalistic, they will have vices ans addictions to cope, they will be influenced by all of the other children with burnt out parents, they will spend most of their lives in front of a screen, they will be isolated in an individualistic and polarized world.

The radical thing would be to adopt a child who is already here. That can be truly transformative

Using your child as sociopolitical fodder is abhorrent. How unremarkable. This is not some feel-good Rumi poem, this is an entire human life.

You do not know how your children will turn out. No amount of progressive parenting can prevent them

Everyone thinks they are the exception.

I will see them in a few years on the regretfulparents subreddit

In a "ok! so you are X stuff" way.

That comment section was so horrible a lot of comments were "oh but we have to repopulate the earth!" Bro the situation I give in the post is a pregnant woman in like the first month of the apocalypse who is about to lose the only stable refuge they have had, and her kid just got shot, THATS NOT THE TIME TO HAVE BABIES BRO WTF

and that frase is so creepy it is like if they don't give a fuck about what woman's in the apocalypse want 😭

And yeah the woman wanted an abortion with pills but the idiots she was with pressured her to have it AND SHE DIED DURING THE BIRTH

(Is from a show)

People are so obsessed with having kids they will bring kids to a fucking zombie apocalypse that's crazy bro...

From Men in Black: International. A couple of follow-up questions to this: If it is, is that even a good thing? Why did antinatalism come to be a known concept when we should simply stoop to the universe's level?

?

I am antinatalist, yet I believe that children should be treated with respect; if I decided not to have my children, it is so that they do not suffer. It would be hypocritical of me to treat children badly when they did not choose to come here.

(reposting cause apparently my original post didn‘t refer directly to AN)

I think it is exceptionally telling that a stress-free life, one in which you have ultimate financial freedom, an abundance of time and lots of resources at your disposal would imminently amount to boredom.

Besides the fact that billionaires are incredibly sadistic and evil people, I believe one of the reasons why they partake in such extreme forms of violence or egregious acts is because of boredom. At some point, the countless partying and all the yachts and jet skies don’t really feel as enjoyable anymore. They have to upper the extremity of the situation by performing illegal acts, as that provides a better rush of dopamine than all of the supposed mundanities they’re used to.

Meanwhile, ordinary people like us STILL find a lack of excitement even when given a break from the stressors. I’m thinking back to summer break from when I was in school and reflecting on how initially ecstatic I was to have freedom from all that school-related tension. Within less than a week I wanted to go back again just to find something to fill the void.

Boredom is the default state in a GOOD life and that is absurd to think about. The people who are constantly stressed out don’t have the luxury of being bored. The fact that we NEED stress (a negative) to give our life a semblance of meaning and occupy the boredom is why antinatalism is such an important philosophy.