Clivedurdle

Genesis notes part of the curse is the pain of childbirth. But during the nineteenth century we humans acted very blasphemously by working out that laughing gas had interesting side effects and then found other ways of killing pain.

The Dutch were also blasphemous - they created their land themselves - not letting goddoit. They even swear "God damn me"!

Isn't any thinking and deciding for ourselves blasphemous? I mean how can it be God's will if we worked out what to do and then did it?

Not very submissive and obedient to the will of God!

steamer

It sounds as if Christians are denying god's right to curse us with massive amounts of pain.

Ghostdog

Thus you have stumbled into the very heart of religion. Of course any self thought is evil! The religious leaders don't want any possibility of curiosity or skepticism in their communities.

oholycheerio

I have heard of women forgoing painkillers during childbirth, for specifically that reason. If god cursed women to be in pain during childbirth, who is to second-guess him? I wonder, though, how women were supposed to have given birth pain-free before the painful version was inflicted on us... Were babies smaller, or did women have huge gaping vaginas? Did babies pop out of people's heads ala Zeus, crawl into a little pouch like opossums, or did we grow them on the outside of our bodies until they were "ripe" for the pickin'? That would be cool!

But then, it seems like pain is a pretty predictable response when you propose that an 8 pound baby should squeeze through... youch! The "it hurts because god made it hurt" seems unnecessary.

My mom had both my brother and I "naturally," although I don't know to what extent her reasons were religious. I do know that she worried alot about the pain meds' affect on us if it were to enter our bloodstreams.