THE BIBLE AND CONTRACEPTION

Catholics attempt to excavate arguments against contraception from the Bible, the purported word of God.
 
Adam and Eve were told by Jehovah to have children and fill the world but they were the originators of the human race and are different from other couples.

It is argued that Onan in Genesis 38 was condemned and punished by God not for birth control but for breaking his promise to father children for his dead brother as was the custom in those days. But in Genesis this custom is not mentioned or is it said that it is our duty to follow it so it is probably the method of birth control. The law mentions the custom later but that is irrelevant for Genesis was written before this bit.

The Bible says that God cursed Eve with the punishment that she would bring forth children in pain. This evidently means that having babies today under anaesthetic to avoid pain is sinful. The Church avoids saying that which shows how little faith it has in its Bible. But it felt free to forbid attempts to avoid pain in the past. Queen Victoria roused the wrath of the Church when she had a child under anaesthetic. The Bible also implies that having a baby by Caesarean Section is immoral. When the Bible is so strict about nature this unnatural method of birth must be sinful. If it is sinful to have a birth with less pain thanks to modern drugs it must be even more sinful to use contraception. This would be clear to a person who believes that contraception is immoral even when it is meant to prevent the conception of a child that will die of some dreadful genetic disease or when the woman cannot have another baby due to a heart defect for it will kill her.
 
The Law of Moses was harsh with married couples who had sex during menstruation. It was made equal to adultery and sodomy for the penalty was being cut off meaning death for that was the punishment for these (Leviticus 18). Sex with a woman who is menstruating was considered evil for it is unnatural as in being unable to produce children because there were ways to make it clean and still it was forbidden.

Malachi 3 tells us that God made husbands and wives one in wedlock so that they might bear him children. If marriage is for babies then birth control is wrong.

The New Testament is against magic potions which it calls pharmakeia which would include potions for birth-prevention (Galatians 5:20; Revelation 18:23). But the Bible forbade magic anyway and maybe they were forbidden because they didn’t work! It is dishonest to argue that when the Bible condemns magic potions that it condemns birth control for that involved magic potions because it is the use of magic that the Bible has the problem with.

It is thought that when the Bible forbids homosexuality that it must be against contraception as well for it isn’t natural either. But homosexuality might be too unnatural to be allowable so it could be different. That is the dangerous implication of the thought.
 
The Church teaches that even if her teaching is wrong, God still uses the Church to represent him and to guide the world and won't discredit it. So if she wrongly forbids contraception, God will ensure that that this ban will not do harm, will be good and certainly no worse than it would be if the Church allowed contraception. Obedience is a duty for the Catholic even if the Church is wrong. Disobeying is a mark of disobedience to God. Needless to say, the Church holds that it is impossible for her to be wrong about the immorality of birth control.
 
If you believe in birth control, if you believe a wife who is subject helplessly to rape by her husband every night should not protect herself by taking the pill, then dump the Catholic Church. You are only kidding yourself if you think you can condone it and call yourself a Catholic.

WORKS CONSULTED

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