Most Sundays, I go to church with my friend after which we go to the restaurant, followed by a walk in the streets of Brussels.

Few people in my life share as many of my values and interests as this guy.

We could spend 12 hours together and never run out of things to say.

Today we discussed the effects that debates and disagreements have on friendships and relationships (among other things).

I used to be insecure and go for the debate in hopes of crushing the opponent. Being right would make me feel powerful.

I'm quite embarrassed to admit it today.

After a while, I realized that nobody wins in debates.

People close their minds, radicalize, and become more stubborn. Furthermore, it negatively impacts the relationship you have with the people you debatted with. I've lost friends after we've had debates, and knowing how pugnacious I was, I cannot blame them for ending the relationship.

It's been maybe a year since I've changed from seeking debates and disagreements to seeking agreements and shared values.

My social life has been transformed as a result.

I find it much more interesting to dig into a shared topic and explore new paths with a friend than to try to convince them of something.

I find it so nice in fact, that I now refuse to have debates or even try to convince people of the righteousness of my argument. Any attempt of active convincing will only have the opposite result. This is foolish. If I want to convince people my opinion is correct, I have to convince them that I am wrong, not right.

It is my claim that I am wrong that will invite people to open their minds to critically analyze and think about why my claim is wrong.

Claiming that I am right will only get them to find reasons why I am not.

Since I always analyze all sides of my beliefs, I actually have a few arguments about why people should not, in fact, have children.

And since this is an opinion we seem to share, this is the case I am going to make.

Life is painful. Waking up, going to work, financial stress, lack of meaning, socio-economic differences, violence. Someone once said that the best thing in life might be to never have been born. It's hard to argue against it.

Unborn people will never even know what they missed.

On top of that, human beings have inflicted untold suffering on the planet.

Pollution, resource exploitation, and global warming are terrible things, and animals would probably feel less pain if human societies disappeared tomorrow.

So having children, in our world, is morally indefensible. The challenges that await them are immense, and it's not right to force someone to put them through it.

As for traveling, it's fun. Fun is nice, it makes us happy. It's much better to go through life being happy than being depressed, so people should do and have as many of the things that make them happy as possible.

I would travel full-time if I could. I really like it, I've been doing it for 10 years and I have no desire whatsoever to stop.

Today, many people decide to be a couple but not have kids, save money, and travel as much as they can.

This is good. This is what people should do. Life is short, be happy while it lasts! Artificially creating a burden for ourselves is stupid.

Life is meaningless anyway. Whether the earth exists or not won't change the universe. We don't really matter. Nothing does. So it's better to decrease the pain that exists on earth as much as possible rather than maintain it (don't have children) and it's better to maximize happiness rather than decrease it (do travel).

For these reasons, we should travel as much as we can, and definitely not have kids.