I am so used to living in the now, that I forget that these ideas have been around for a long, long time.
I haven't read this book, so I can't comment on it directly. But this caught my attention:
This book makes the basic argument that, seeing as we're failing to even feed our current global population, we must use population control measures to reduce the population of the earth drastically--say, to half a billion--in order to be able to sustain the human race for generations to come at an acceptable standard of living.
Did the author offer any ideas about why we are failing to feed the population? One doesn't need to be an economist or any other sort of expert to realize that the problem is not lack of food/resources. It's not even natural disasters and drought.
How many times do we hear of food being sent to this or that needy country, only to learn that much of it never made it to the people, due to the corruption of the government, the military or whoever else is responsible to get it there?
Why are so many people suffering and starving in India and other such places? Much of it is due to the caste system, grounded in Hinduism, which teaches that some people are born being inherently more worthy, as well as the idea of reincarnation where people are taught that they paying off karmic debt and therefore they not only deserve their suffering, but cannot and should not ameliorate it because they'll only have to finish paying in their next life. Don't even get me started on the 'animals are sacred' routine, which not only lets people starve, but also allows filth and disease to run rampant and make ill/kill even more people!
(Mind you, these ideas have zero evidence behind them. Simply witnessing the end result of utter misery that they bring should be enough to show that they are false and need to be done away with.)
Then there are the never ending wars being fought for various reasons, all over the planet. Don't forget the garden variety corruption and crime that is everywhere as well.
***
In other words, lack of resources is not the (main) problem. Too many people is not the problem. I guarantee that if they succeeded in achieving their ideal population levels, whatever people were left would still be starving in some parts of the world.
The never-changing heart of man, always prone to do wicked things - that is the problem.
There's only one worldview that I know of that addresses this issue directly, as well as providing the motivation/inspiration for directly relieving suffering, and that is the biblical worldview.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2012-05-06 02:22 am (UTC)I haven't read this book, so I can't comment on it directly. But this caught my attention:
This book makes the basic argument that, seeing as we're failing to even feed our current global population, we must use population control measures to reduce the population of the earth drastically--say, to half a billion--in order to be able to sustain the human race for generations to come at an acceptable standard of living.
Did the author offer any ideas about why we are failing to feed the population? One doesn't need to be an economist or any other sort of expert to realize that the problem is not lack of food/resources. It's not even natural disasters and drought.
How many times do we hear of food being sent to this or that needy country, only to learn that much of it never made it to the people, due to the corruption of the government, the military or whoever else is responsible to get it there?
Why are so many people suffering and starving in India and other such places? Much of it is due to the caste system, grounded in Hinduism, which teaches that some people are born being inherently more worthy, as well as the idea of reincarnation where people are taught that they paying off karmic debt and therefore they not only deserve their suffering, but cannot and should not ameliorate it because they'll only have to finish paying in their next life. Don't even get me started on the 'animals are sacred' routine, which not only lets people starve, but also allows filth and disease to run rampant and make ill/kill even more people!
(Mind you, these ideas have zero evidence behind them. Simply witnessing the end result of utter misery that they bring should be enough to show that they are false and need to be done away with.)
Then there are the never ending wars being fought for various reasons, all over the planet. Don't forget the garden variety corruption and crime that is everywhere as well.
***
In other words, lack of resources is not the (main) problem. Too many people is not the problem. I guarantee that if they succeeded in achieving their ideal population levels, whatever people were left would still be starving in some parts of the world.
The never-changing heart of man, always prone to do wicked things - that is the problem.
There's only one worldview that I know of that addresses this issue directly, as well as providing the motivation/inspiration for directly relieving suffering, and that is the biblical worldview.