I have two theories about this.

1. Its easier to raise members of the church than to convert them.
2. It is to keep the breeding members off balance and unable to pay closer attention to how their lives are being manipulated. Who has time for that when you are chasing 5 rugrats all over the place?

My beef with this mentality is that I genuinely believe that we, as a species are living unsustainably. There are too damn many of us and the earth wont be able to support all of these folks if we keep multiplying the way we do. But hey, if you believe in the Second Coming and that there are tons of spirit children in Heaven needing bodies, who cares? Youre doing the Lords work and dont need to worry about overpopulation.

There was a map I saw once that represented countries based off birth rate, poverty, and religious belief. The countries with the highest birth rates were the poorest and most religiously active.

My stance has always been to never have children just for the sake of having children. You have children for the childrens sake, not yours. Babies arent supposed to make you happy. They can bring happiness, but your desire for happiness shouldnt be your sole motivation for reproducing.

As a side not here, I just want to say that I am a very proud uncle and I love all of my nieces and nephews. It was only recently that I decided I probably didnt want kids because my only motivations for having children were rooted in church beliefs. Also, I got a super sick feeling in my stomach when my wife told me we needed to have kids "because its a commandment".

Im partly venting here, but I really do want to know what you folks have to say on the subject.

Hope youre all having a wonderful day today.

I'm here because of the multiply and replenish the earth rubbish. My dad was not suited to have a goldfish, let alone six children.

These people think that they will some day rule the planet. Seriously. They really think that.

Now, if a cult wants to rule the world they better have substantial human resources and since the majority of the populace are not gullible fools the morgs must create their own "army of god." If they can outlive and outbreed everyone else they will eventually rule the planet and Joe can come back and be King like he always wanted.

In summary, mormons breed like rabbits because they want to conquer the world and force everyone to worship Satan.

the trouble is that they want to replenish Venus, Mars, and half of Jupiter.

I think this may have been important thousands of years ago when pockets of humans really were in danger of dying out. Back then there were diseases, food issues, etc. that they could not control. They knew the way to have power and protection was in bigger numbers. So, my guess is that they incorporated it into the cultural mores and rules to focus on breeding.

The religion that breeds the fastest survives. Those are the religions that stress no birth control and big families. It's about maintaining position and power now.

In this day and age, it is an irresponsible and selfish thing to teach, IMO. We have ecosystems to protect and all kinds of issues related to overpopulation. We act like resources are endless and that God will come in and clean everything up.

Earth is a flying Petri dish. The agar can only support so much life.

The mormon fertility rate has been declining for over thirty years and, in the United States, has dropped to barely sustaining the population. Sure, you will find a few wards where the birth rate is high, but when one looks at the whole church in the United States you undestand my point. Our concern must be relating to overall world population. The fears of mormonism taking over because of the high birth rate should be put to rest. Forty years ago the rate was high and as a raw rate one could still be misled but when one factors in age, the fertility rate is barely high enough to avoid incipient population decline.

Well, I gave birth to my 4th child just 2mnths and a week after my 23rd birthday. However, I took my children with me when I left the church so there are FOUR less children being corrupted by the church now! Go me!