When Puppies Replace People

The Maltese breed was actually developed to reside mostly in women's sleeves to keep them warm, and I've read 19th century Russian works--I forget which author or work--which note the owners' tendency to value the dogs over the people around them. No doubt that one can over-value an animal, or put resources into animals that really ought to go to people, but it's really an age-old problem.

We might even argue that it's more of a symptom of the problem than the problem itself. A dog is, in comparison to a child, relatively affordable, and can be well cared for by a single person, whereas children do far better in the homes of married parents. So we might argue that the real issue is the various social realities--high college debt, poor job opportunities for many, sexual revolution, consequences of parents' divorces, etc..--that make it difficult for young people to marry and then get the financial stability they need to consider having children.

I appreciated the direction the author went with the topic: focusing on how God values humans, even post-Fall, and the goodness and beauty of human life, despite sin.

This matters because life is beautiful. Life is valuable. Being pro-life certainly means we oppose abortion, but it should mean much, much more! Not killing life is the first step in celebrating life, but we should also delight in new life! We should be excited by children and families. Church nurseries should be bursting at the seams. Couples should eagerly look forward to when they can start their own family.

We need more of that. (I’d also love to see more awareness of the implications of that for work, vocations, human achievements, explorations and studies (aka science)).

Culturally, we have a deep and complex cynicism problem. There’s a lot more ‘God talk’ lately, but I think it’s mostly utilitarian/opportunistic. There’s a feeling that religion is sometimes useful, and so, let’s use it. But the Christian worldview is not that ‘religion is useful.’ So these shifts we’re seeing are not anything like a Christian revival—and they mask, I believe, a continuing deep sense of meaninglessness across the culture(s) of the West.

If it’s all meaningless anyway, why raise families when you can get many of your personal emotional needs met through pets, with less risk, less commitment, and less cost?

The disease is our obsession with personal outcomes—which I suppose comes from a deeper disease: our obsession with ourselves.

I recall the scene in Eden. The serpent’s argument is: eating the fruit is a shortcut to some outcomes that should be desirable from your point of view.

So we are where it all started: our point of view rather than the Creator’s.