17. Responsible men can become more deeply convinced of the truth of the doctrine laid down by the Church on this issue if they reflect on the consequences of methods and plans for artificial birth control. Let them first consider how easily this course of action could open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards. Not much experience is needed to be fully aware of human weakness and to understand that human beings—and especially the young, who are so exposed to temptation—need incentives to keep the moral law, and it is an evil thing to make it easy for them to break that law. Another effect that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection.
The biggest thing I found to take away from this passage, other than that the Pope generalizes all human beings to be extremely weak-minded and unable to control themselves to the slightest, is that a man who, with a woman, uses contraceptive methods will then show no respect for the woman and use her only for his own (sexual) desires. This sounds very similar to the classic (possibly
To me this is just completely unreasonable. If this is a
I kind of interpreted this paragraph a different way. I took it as if the pill is taken by a woman, then a man can have sex with her without having to worry that a child will be born thus leaving them with a responsibility. The Pope is saying that since men are weak minded, that they will just use women as intrumens for their own pleasure since there is no way that a baby can be made. This is the Popes arguement agains the pill. I know that their are some low people in this world, but for a person to do this would would mean they have no feelings. I guess that their are people out there like this and they should be ashamed. I think the underlying meaning of this paragraph is to respect all people, which I do agree with.
ReplyDeleteThis was kind of what I was getting at. It just seems to sound like the Pope was saying that because of these contraceptive methods it makes all men these "low people." I agree that there are some people like this in the world, but it just sounds to me that the Pope was making a big generalization and saying all people are like this.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I think it is important to note that the pope says "may," not "definitely will."
ReplyDeleteSecond, I think his argument is that in a man's mind he can be affected by a woman two ways, love and sexual pleasure (a concept supported by psychology}. If the love aspect is taken out of it for whatever reason [say, if the possibility of continuing on with a family together] then there is a greater chance that the sex will resort to simply a tool for pleasure. If this is the case then there is a greater chance that repeated sexual behavior only for pleasure could result in him only seeing it that way.