"So what do you think about the over population problem?"

Having six kids I hear such statements from coworkers.

I work for the number one green builder in the nation and so from time to time have to sit through environmental lectures and training on how to save the planet which have included statements about educating people to have less children.

What should our response be to such questions and jabs?

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--chRis
Psalm 115:1

Christopher Reeder
Husband to Kara, Father to Abigail (7), Caleb (6), Grace (4 1/2), Zoë (3), Elijah (1 1/2) and Hannah (born 8/8/2008)

Member: Pilgrim Presbyterian Church (OPC), Raleigh, NC

I think it is great idea that THEY have less kids.

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For the sake of the Name,

John Hill
Faith Community - Woodstock, Ga
Adopted. Husband for 12 years. Father of 5 children.
http://faithcommunitychurch.org- My home church
Rocky Top, you'll always be, home sweet home to me.

Tell them to drive up Highway 5 in California.

Or, have them read Rushdoony's book The myth of Overpopulation which was actually recommended by the Wall Street Journal. He points to the correlation between national wealth and population density, which is really interesting. Take the most densly populated countries like Holland and Belgium and contrast their national wealth with the Sudan and Congo.

But when you're dealing with people who've never been taught critical thinking it can be like bashing your head into a wall.

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Tim Vaughan, 48 years old, member Redeemer OPC, Santa Maria CA.

let them have less children. they have rejected God and they are being turned over to a reprobate mind. "They that hate me love death". They have started to not have children thereby dwindling their numbers, next they will start killing themselves to reduce their carbon foot prints.

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~Keon Garraway~ Brooklyn, NY Member of Franklin Square OPC

Love for God demonstrated by the love for our children in giving them a God centered education is the only hope for our country. by David Morrow
Pslam 71:20 [Thou], which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.

Ha, sorry off topic but I had a conversation with a nutty guy in the military who advocated forceful population control and euthanasia. I almost ended up in a fight when I think I handed him my shoelace (string? rope?) and told him to put his money where his mouth was and start with himself to limit population. Many want less people but who has the guts to remove themselves first?

..he didn't appreciate that too much.

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Pergamum


"If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?"
-- David Livingstone

AAMOF, when taking a college speech class several years ago the topic of my persuasive speech was to encourage my classmates to have large families.

No nation on the planet has an overabundance of educated, productive citizens. None. Middle class families producing middle class children who are statistically likely to themselves become productive, tax-paying citizens are a boon and a blessing to a society.

Today's blog post by Al Mohler speaks to this very thing: Where are Europe's babies?

"'You can't have a country where everybody lives in a nursing home.' The statement, shockingly obvious as it may be, was offered by Carl Haub of the Population Reference Bureau. He was speaking of Europe's looming demographic disaster. As The New York Times Magazine reports this week, many Europeans are now asking, 'Where are the babies?'"

[snip]

"In the 1990s, European demographers began noticing a downward trend in population across the Continent and behind it a sharply falling birthrate. Non-number-crunchers largely ignored the information until a 2002 study by Italian, German and Spanish social scientists focused the data and gave policy makers across the European Union something to ponder. The figure of 2.1 is widely considered to be the "replacement rate" -- the average number of births per woman that will maintain a country's current population level. At various times in modern history -- during war or famine -- birthrates have fallen below the replacement rate, to "low" or "very low" levels. But Hans-Peter Kohler, José Antonio Ortega and Francesco Billari -- the authors of the 2002 report -- saw something new in the data. For the first time on record, birthrates in southern and Eastern Europe had dropped below 1.3. For the demographers, this number had a special mathematical portent. At that rate, a country's population would be cut in half in 45 years, creating a falling-off-a-cliff effect from which it would be nearly impossible to recover."

Only an idiot actually believes the canard that Social Security is wholly self-funded, i.e. that recipients only take out that which they personally put in. Ha. No, it's a pay-as-you-go program, with it taking so many tax-payers to support one SS recipient.

You - and I! - are doing our part; we've supplied enough children to pay for our SS benefits, with some left over to support people like your co-worker in his old age. ;^)

Tell him if he'd care to express his appreciation through a restaurant gift card or something, you will not say him nay.

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Anne Ivy
Christ Chapel Bible Church
Fort Worth, Texas

Married to Don, mother of six, grandmother to an ever-increasing brood.

The Ivy Vine (my blog)

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~Keon Garraway~ Brooklyn, NY Member of Franklin Square OPC

Love for God demonstrated by the love for our children in giving them a God centered education is the only hope for our country. by David Morrow
Pslam 71:20 [Thou], which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.

Anne, social security is a government ponzi scheme

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~Keon Garraway~ Brooklyn, NY Member of Franklin Square OPC

Love for God demonstrated by the love for our children in giving them a God centered education is the only hope for our country. by David Morrow
Pslam 71:20 [Thou], which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.

Yes, and it is hard to respect the elderly when they get entitled over their funds and every 3rd productive worker in the US is carrying their load...a load that will not be carried for us "Young-uns" when we get old because the funds will be gone!

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Pergamum


"If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?"
-- David Livingstone

Liberals are under populating themselves out of existence. I'm ok with that.

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Bob Vigneault (Bawb Vēēn-yo)
I just know there's got to be a pony in here somewhere!

The Heartbeat of Heaven (blog) MySpace (Music), MySpace (Personal)
Member of Christ Presbyterian Church, Janesville, WI OPC www.christ-opc.org

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

My sophomoric answer would be, "That's gay."



(Yes, I know gay doesn't mean homosexual, but when used in the above sentence it just sounds better than "That's homosexual.")

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Josh Hicks, Chloë's Daddy
Member of TRBC, Attending CCRPC. My Blog
The Puritan Pub (Team Blog)
Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

Here are some fascinating statistics: give every person in the world 1 square foot (enough to stand in), and you can fit the entire world's population in Jacksonville, Fl. Give everyone 1000 square feet (which is more than many people have in their homes), and you can fit the entire world's population in Kansas, Nebraska, and a 10-mile strip of South Dakota. We are not headed for over-population any more than we are headed for global warming. Instead, as Anne pointed out, we are headed for a demographic winter. The only people having babies in abundance right now are right-wing evangelicals, Roman Catholics (some of them), and Muslims. Can you say Roe V Wade by-by soon? We'll conquer them by the cradle!

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Rev. Lane Keister
Teaching Elder, PCA, North Dakota (working out of bounds in a CRC and an RCA church)
http://greenbaggins.wordpress.com
http://brahmsgreenglove.blogspot.com
http://accenttranslation.blogspot.com
Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

You sound like my kids. I'll never forget something Otto Scott said at lunch on a related topic, Keynesian economics "The problem with Keynes' thinking was that he was gay. Well, he had a pro forma marriage with a lesbian ballerina, but he knew he would never have kids, so he didn't care about the repercussions of his thought"

Be afraid. Be very afraid. We will out breed you. Start treating us nice, or else.

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Tim Vaughan, 48 years old, member Redeemer OPC, Santa Maria CA.

Lane, I have heard exactly the same thing except using just one state, Texas, as the example.

If you took 6 billion people and put them all in Texas - even discounting for lakes, ponds, rivers, and streams - each person would have 1100 sq ft to themselves.

As others have stated here, when you have an anti-Christian, anti free market, and anti-freedom in general society, the negative things we see thoughout the world (poverty, starvation, etc.) are the natural consequences.

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Randy Harris
Heritage Church (Independent)
Oklahoma City, OK

"In the long run we're all dead"... especially if we don't have any children.

Overpopulation or the threat of overpopulation is something of a myth. The world's population growth peaked somewhere around the 1950's, in percentage terms, and in the late 1980's, in absolute terms, and is expected to hit zero somewhere around 2050. What is not usually emphasised is that, by then, fertility per woman is expected to be well below replacement level, and world population is expected to then go into an accelerating decline.

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T W Hopper
Member, Presbyterian Reformed Church
Currently between churches since PRC closed here - attending Crossroads Christian Church.
Canberra, Australia.

I hadn't heard that particular statistic. Good info!

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Anne Ivy
Christ Chapel Bible Church
Fort Worth, Texas

Married to Don, mother of six, grandmother to an ever-increasing brood.

The Ivy Vine (my blog)

That's the way it goes with the social scientist "experts":

In the 1970's, there was another ice age on the way.

Next it was overpopulation. Now it is appearing to be underpopulation.

All 'scientifically' backed.

These guys remind me of the level of Dante's Inferno where everyone is attached to huge flags that drag them around depending on which way the wind blows.

Whether we breed the froot-loop liberals out of existence or just me and my wife wake up to a world full of Muslims, the battle is the Lord's. (And thank the Lord for that!)

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Kevin
Far East
Deacon, Int'l Church

In a different thread we were discussing the book America Alone by Mark Steyn and his fight with Canadian Human Rights Tribunals. I've only just begun reading the book (who could resist reading a book that a kangaroo court was essentially getting ready to ban?), but Steyn discusses the "myth" of over-population. Over-population isn't a myth, per se, but the telling question is who is over-populating?

Up here in Canada, we are apparently having too few kids to maintain a stable population (1.5 children per couple), where in Europe the rate is even lower. The U.S. is doing much better at about 2.1 children per couple. In contrast, it is the Muslim world which is growing at amazing / expansionist rates.

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Eric
Woodgreen Presbyterian (PCA)
Calgary, Alberta CANADA

What about water usage? I don't think I have ever seen the problem of water shortages and access to usable water addressed by those who disagree that we will reach overpopulation.

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Scott Roper
Member, Redeemer Presbyterian Church (PCA): "A bunch of hippie Calvinists"
Winston-Salem, NC

Good point.