Why Church Speaks for God re Natural Family Planning

I plan to write a longer article on this subject, so here's an outline of what I'll be explaining to provide some material for thought until then. One of the largest challenges to faith for Catholics is the prohibition against artificial forms of birth control. I'd like to explain why the prohibition exists from "God's point of view." It is important to understand why the prohibition against artificial forms exists, and why natural (cyclic) family planning is encouraged. This is not going to be a political or socio-economic article, but one of educational background.

First of all, it's important to understand that only humans and the apes have what is called the menstrual cycle, which means that they can reproduce pretty much at will, on a monthly basis. Every single major form of life (I'm not talking about ants here, but rather mammals, reptiles, and all of the historic creatures such as dinosaurs) have what is called an estrous cycle aka "coming into heat." This is the time when a female is able to become pregnant and signals that she can to prospective mates. Those of you who have followed the recent births of baby pandas in the US and China have learned about this by hearing how the female panda is only in heat once a year, and for only the briefest of amount of time (a day or two.) Now think about this. All of you who have faith believe that God created the universe, earth, and all of the creatures upon it. Isn't it a very strong message related to survival that every species except apes/humans has a limited period of fertility, often as rare as once or twice a year? Animals have thrived for millions and millions of years in this system. Here is a quote from Wikipedia with some handy comparisons of common animals that we are all aware of:

"Some species, such as cats, cows and pigs, are polyestrous and can go into heat several times a year. Seasonally polyestrous animals have more than one estrous cycles during a specific time of the year and can be divided into short-day and long-day breeders:
Short-day breeders, such as sheep, goats, deer, foxes, elk—are sexually active in fall or winter.
Long-day breeders, such as horses and hamsters, are sexually active in spring and summer.
Species that go into heat twice per year, such as most dogs, are diestrous.
Monoestrous species, such as bears, foxes, and wolves, have only one breeding season a year, typically in spring to allow growth of the offspring during the warm season to survive the next winter.
A few mammalian species, such as rabbits, do not have an oestrus cycle and are able to conceive at almost any arbitrary moment."

Throughout the several billion history of life on earth, life has both flourished and been naturally regulated by a yearly or at most twice a year time of breeding. Animals do not under normal circumstances pursue sexual gratification outside of the purpose of reproducing. Again, apes and humans are the only species that have separated the sexual act from the reproductive imperative and cycle.

Now, fast forward and think about some of the traditional Jewish laws about not having relations with one's wife during certain times of the month. A lot of feminists totally misunderstand the origin of that, focusing on the "unclean" wording but not on the historic reasons this evolved. When God dictated the Law to the people of Israel through Moses, God had the well being of the people and both their earthly survival and their heavenly salvation in mind. God knows from his infinite knowledge and can see through "experience" of the two billion years of life on the planet that life flourishes when it is "open" to reproduction at all times, but limited in the number of times that reproduction is possible. When humans interfere with the natural ability to reproduce, it's not so much a matter of making God angry, but rather, they are continuing the long pattern of human's fooling around with what they don't understand and then having dire consequences for the entire species' survival, and most of all, for the sanctity of life and of children. When people are closed to children and manipulate fertility in artificial ways, it's not simply a matter of morality anymore, but also a severe quality of life issue and ultimately jeopardizes entire populations. I offer as one example what happens when countries such as China and India have large "traditions" of killing infant girls. They now have millions of males who might have to face life without a spouse. So when God created Laws and prohibitions, it was designed to make the reproduction and continuation of life natural and in harmony with the earth that humans spend their life upon, in community with other humans. Regulating the frequency of sexual activity when one can potentially result in a pregnancy is the key to natural life itself and it's ongoing success.

(to be continued)