rationalskepticism.org

Andrew4Handel wrote:

mattwilson wrote:Well I don't know how many balls your life sucks but by having children I'm introducing them to life, to beauty and wonder, I enrich their lives and they enrich mine. What a tragic view, I pity anyone who truly thinks like that.

You and your children may be happy that is not enough to make a universal statement about the rights and wrongs of procreation.

Nevertheless David Benatar who wrote a book on this topic challenges peoples accounts and the reliability of their accounts of their own happiness.

If someone with no arms and legs is happy you could argue that we should all be happy in that scenario because it is possible however it is unlikely that we would all be happy and able to function in that scenario.
Psychologists have discovered an optimistic bias in which people are shown on average to be over optimistic about outcomes in the face of contrary evidence. Such as under estimating the likelihood of them having a serious illness or getting an STD etc.

I was not completely unhappy as a child despite having lots of abuse and bad scenarios. I was bullied regularly at school and went to a hell and damnation church with oppressive rules. It is possible to maintain your spirits for I don't know what reason in the face of hardship. The problem is then that you fail to properly identify abuse and needless suffering and thus propogate it. I only fully recognised what I had been through was wrong and damaging when I had to fend for myself and didn't having the coping mechanisms.

In reality extreme suffering is happening right now to many people living in poverty and war with shortened lives or permanent depression who will never have the opportunity to feel like you and that is being perpetuated by this false optimism.