To those Christians who imagine that God's commandment to multiply has somehow expired, the idea is just that: your imagination. Until God tells you so (and if he does, add it to your Bible), better not put words in his mouth. But, in fact, the prophets today have affirmed that God's will on the subject has not changed. The only thing awaiting those who eschew procreation is... exactly what they choose: an emptier world, an emptier life, an emptier soul -- a life full of the things that don't matter and lacking the things that do. On the other hand, having children, or creating life, brings a person closer to the Creator than any other thing. Creation is not an opportunity to be treated lightly by those who have it.
One of the problems I see with population control for sustainability is that it itself is not a sustainable practice, not in the developed world. As soon as our population shrinks, our economy shrinks, until to the point when our government, like some others already, has to start encouraging population growth again.
We also have to consider foreign relations. It's the numbers in China that give the Chinese such an economic advantage. Take away our people, contract our market, and we lose our geopolitical influence. Well, a less-extended America might not be so lamentable to some, but the more serious repercussion is that in the event of a major military conflict, our fists will be smaller than the fists of our enemy. We've made a lot of local concerns our business, yes; but what will it feel like if we can't intervene even when it's necessary? What if "The Greatest Generation" who fought off our once-enemies, the Germans and the Japanese, had been population-controlled?
Besides, what substance can we find in the claim that the earth can only support a certain number of people? The only argument offered is, "Well, ten billion people, twelve, fifteen billion people... it just seems like too much!" But six billion seems like a big number too, and here we are, still very spread out. In this country, only a very few of our cities are especially dense; the rest consist of miles and miles of one- and two-level residences, or little three-level apartments. It's ridiculous how much room we take up with so few people, especially when you look at places like Hong Kong and other Asian cities; and it shows (at least with regards to physical space; though the same principle applies to many of our essential resources) how much more room is left to be used. We're roughly the same size as China, but we have something like 23% of its population -- and the Chinese are heavily concentrated in cities too. Even China still has lots of room, lots of potential farmland, and so on.
Do we really want to be all crowded like China, though? Maybe not. But, when it's a question of human life, which most of us think has some kind of intrinsic value, then what gives us the right to deprive those future people of their existence? Is securing our own comfort, well-being, or benefit worth preventing other people from living?
If it is, we can say we have at least some understanding of the mindset of a murderer.
Still, there do remain some vital technological steps to be taken if we want to maintain our standard of living. It would really be nice if we could de-salinize or re-use water more efficiently, and unlock new energy sources, and of course, explore new waste management methods. These are all achievable goals that we're already moving toward, and we can get there faster by more innovatively educating our young people. In our schools right now are some of the people who will help banish this article to obsolescence.
Well, after all this is said, my thoughts return to the spiritual. To me it seems that complaining about population growth is like putting a band-aid on a cancer patient. By far, the things that will cause us the most misery in this world are social sicknesses and upheavals, not environmental ones; and right now, religious progress would help us a lot more than scientific progress.
Let's all pray for a larger heart, first.
