Modus tollens: Human reproduction is rationally unjustifiable (i.e., if we were rational, then we wouldn’t reproduce). We continue reproducing. Therefore, we are not rational. This is a valid argument, and I take it (2) is self-evident1, so the only way to avoid the conclusion (3) is to demonstrate that human reproduction is rationally justifiable. This is the premise I’m going to interrogate below. Better Never to Have Been For my money, the clearest evidence that humans apply rationality only post-hoc, as (epiphenomenal, if not simply feigned) justification for actions sufficiently caused by their emotions, is the fact that we keep making more humans.

Theory: The root cause of most of our frustrations is forcing a mental model onto an event that doesn’t fit. That is, we make category errors. Religion is a paradigm example of this, whereby humans force the concept of morality onto natural events, when natural events are simply (and indeed, by definition) not the types of things to which morality applies. Morality is a human construct, and it does not exist independently of our own supposition.