All this talk about LDS, children and family values.
I'm not LDS and I have a son. Is that allowed? I also have family values. Am I going to be sanctioned since no other religion has family values? I've heard this repeatedly since moving here as if no other religion has any morals.

Amy
"Stop listening to the prophet and the Bible long enough to listen to reason and common sense!"
Please tell me if I said to you, stop listening to something or someone you believe in with all your heart with the tone that you perpetually post with, amazing written words have a tone, then wouldn't you ask the same thing stop being hateful or angry. Something that's astounding Amy is you did in the MMM boards when people responded with the same tone that you use.

Amy science has been wrong before as well humanity is fallible and even the best scientists or our day are unwilling to accept new ideas. Take Einstein for example he would not accept the quantum theory even on his death bead he didn't believe it. "God does not play dice". Science is just as fallible as religion according to you.

The following table, from http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/medincsizeandstate.html , shows the relationship between family size and income (in dollars) in the state of Utah as of the last census.

2-person families 50,155
3-person families 56,671
4-person families 63,586
5-person families 64,213
6-person families 68,699
7-or-more-person families 76,557

Apparently, income increases with family size, presumably in an attempt to provide for said families. Whether this increase is proportional to the costs of providing is for all of you to debate.

We're all adults here, right? Could both sides provide some hard facts to support their argument: either the empirical negative effects of overcrowding and the infinite superiority of adoption, (instead of judgment calls of "so selfish!") or the sociological benefit of children being raised by their biological parents, or the doctrinal reasons to have several children (besides "so selfless!").

Resorting to arguments about perceived pyramid schemes OR providing spirits with bodies are opinion-based and get people nowhere as far as actually evaluating the pros and cons.

I found that the average family size is 3.24 in Salt Lake City (en.wikipedia.org), compared to 3.14 for the rest of the United States. Is that really that astronomical of a difference? Sure, large families have a higher mode here, but it seems the median is not all that different.

Personally, I can't picture having more than 2-3 kids, because I come from a small family: both my parents are only children, and I have two siblings. I think it is more of a personal choice than a public obligation, one way or the other.

If someone can conclusively show me how not having a kid will save starving ones in Africa or having one will ensure the exaltation of you or the kid, congratulations. I don't think it's going to happen, though.