Hey everyone, it is an interesting topic here.
I have no kids but let me share my own experience. I come from a family of 5 children (five boys, so i have 4 brothers).
I remember when my parents told me they were going to have a fifth child. I was about 12 years old. It was very uncommon to see a family with so many kids, and that made me feel like my family was different from the other families and that made me ashamed.
I was thinking "oh no, what are they doing, 5 children is too much there is no need for that."
Well now my little brother is 10 year old and I love him. He is really a great kid, he has lots of humour for his age and I like very much spending time with him. Now I can't imagine him not to be here. That is a personnal point of view, but just to say that kids can bring lots of love in a family, and that is a good reason for having kids.
To answer the question of Hsiang-lin,
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But why do most people want to have children? I think the most common answer is to preserve the family name, genetics, or legacy. I took that further and thought, "Why do we need to preserve such things if we can just adopt?"
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Maybe, people just want kids in order to love them, to give and receive love, even if they are not totally conscious of that. And that is why it is perfectly OK to adopt, because we can love adopted kids as much as natural kids. And this is why having kids just for the sake of having kids is not such a good thing. I mean if people have kids just to do like everyone else it is wrong, because it is not a matter of fashion. (don't know if i am clear, I am not an native english speaker)
I have been thinking also that the love between a mother and her children is a bit like the true LOVE that one can experience towards every beings if he/she is identifiying him/herself with consciouness. I say that because a mum feels that her child is somewhat part of her. They have shared the same "body" and the same food and everything for 9 months before the birth, and that gives a true feeling of connectedness. At least when the kid is young, the mother feels the baby is part of her.
Maybe if they are some mothers here, they can tell us if this feeling exists. (maybe I am just imagining it, I am a boy and have no kids...so I just guess
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and for the other species point of view:
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But all these great achievements are indeed great WITHIN the context of the human species. But how are they great within the context of other species? I'm sure a lot of animals and other species in the rainforests don't take too kindly to our intrusion on their environment
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Well, maybe it is not a matter of number, but rather of attitude...I am really not sure of that, but couldn't 10 billions of humans live in peace with other species if they were respectful toward them? (for instance if they were all vegetarians or something like that...)