AMERICANS HAVE KIDS BUT FEWER ARE GETTING MARRIED

Is it me? Are more people having kids these days? I swear, I see more and more pregnant women wandering around LA. See, personally, I'm confused as to why people want to have kids at all these days. I mean, I look at the world and think "do I want my offspring to have to deal with/clean up this mess? NO WAY!" To me, it seems positively vindictive to have kids with the world the way it is today. Would you wish the preteen fascist state that the US is becoming on someone you're supposed to love? Well, I wouldn't. But most people aren't me. The interesting thing is that fewer couples are bothering to get married than ever before. According to [http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/tribpm/s_477899.html|a November 2, 2006 article] at PittsburghLive.com:

For the first time, married-couple households are no longer in the majority, according to statistics from the bureau's latest American Community Survey. From 2000-05, the percentage of Southwestern Pennsylvania households headed by married couples dropped from 50.5 percent to 49.1 percent, mirroring national numbers.

To top that off, [http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Unmarried_Births.html|a November 22, 2006 article] from AP.org available at SeattlePI.com reports:

Out-of-wedlock births in the United States have climbed to an all-time high, accounting for nearly four in 10 babies born last year, government health officials said Tuesday. While out-of-wedlock births have long been associated with teen mothers, the birth rate among girls ages 10 to 17 actually dropped last year to the lowest level on record. Instead, births among unwed mothers rose most dramatically among women in their 20s. Experts said the overall rise reflects the burgeoning number of people who are putting off marriage or living together without getting married. They said it also reflects the fact that having a child out of wedlock is more acceptable nowadays and not necessarily the source of shame it once was.

OK, now, what I think no one will talk about in the media is why marriage seems to be in decline. Sure its "more acceptable" to have a live with a lover and/or have a child out of wedlock, but why is that? Well, one of my theories about religion is that it was literally invented to help control people and make them behave in a civilized manner. "Behave or you'll go to hell!" And we did. For millennia we've behaved and used religious rituals to signify to God that we were following the rules. Marriage was part of that. We couldn't just run around having sex with anyone because that would be chaotic. Men get possessive of their women (even when they have more than one) and so marriage would bind women to a man. God was used as an excuse to keep women (and men) "civilized". But now, it seems like we humans don't need God or religion's rules to form bonds with loved ones and have families. We're perfectly capable of being "civilized" on our own without the threat of hell or a lack of heaven hanging over our heads. I think it's great--religion has told us what to do and what not to do for thousands of years. Now, more and more people are telling religion to take five while they make up their minds for themselves. Independent thought that still values the family unit/community. Pretty friggen' cool, if you ask me. I still think humans should stop having kids until we can feed and care for the kids on planet Earth already. But that's just me--I think no kid should be parentless or healthless--I'm wacky that way.

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