As I stated in my last post, if they are errent then enlighten me. This is a point in Catholic teaching where the logic is particularly thin. I’m okay with the “take it on faith” approach, and here it is the only viable answer that I can see.
A straw man argument, implys leaving out several curcial points that make an argument valid; I don’t see where I’ve done that, instead I’ve taken failed arguments and persented them as such (if they are strawmen they aren’t my strawmen, they are the strawmen others have asked me to believe).
Since you imply that you know the answer to my question, help me understand, which of these explinations is at the core to why NFP is okay:
b/c of periods of abstinance.
b/c of a open mindset.
b/c of being statistically more open.
b/c of being more in line with natural life or hormonal urgings.
b/c artificial things are evil and can’t be used in the procreative act.
b/c its harder.
b/c God revealed this to the Church.
I think NFP is okay is because in NFP you are doing what you are allowed to do, which is have relations with your wife. The other things you may be doing are also allowed. You may be making body observations, but body observations are fine. You may be spending some days in which you do not have relations with your wife. This, too, is okay, since there is no law that says you must have relations on next Tuesday, or whichever day, so long as you and your wife are in agreement. Also, you may be making plans for the future, for your family, but this, too, is okay. NFP does not involve taking an action that is wrong. You could ask separately about the idea of total abstinence forever, but I don’t think that seems to be what you are concerned about.
So, what is wrong with contraception, then? How is it different from the above? It is different because you do something that you are not supposed to do. You take steps before, during, or after a marital act for the specific intention to make procreation in the act less likely, impossible, etc. You try to have your act on, say, Tuesday, be at a lower fertility that you would have if you had left things alone and had relations on Tuesday. With NFP you just say, “Today, hmmm. Let’s see, I can either have relations or not today. I pick yes.” With contraception, you additionally have done or do something else, something that is/was designed to negatively affect the fertility of your potential act that day, like take pills to suppress any ovulation that might be happening at or around that day, or you apply a spermicide to kill the sperm that are present in that act, or you sit in a sperm-zapping bath to make sure no sperm are present in the act, or you engage in mind-control techniques to trigger a UFO to send brainwaves to disorient all the sperm so they swim in circles.
