*Assumes a deep dramatic voice* “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground”

*Voice back to normal* This is of course a quote from Genesis, the first book of the Bible. Now, from this paragraph, it would seem to me that God command Christians to take control of the earth.

This provides a moral dilemma. You see, we are the most destructive force on the planet. We created global warming, animal cruelty, deforestation and basically ruined the whole planet. Even all of us breathing we make up about 20%, I believe the figure is, of the earth CO2 output. Therefore, since God put us in charge of caring for the planet and not destroying it, by multiplying do we destroy it? The answer is of course, yes we do.

And thus the question I want to ask is this. Can we morally justify our high rates of birth and urbanisation?

Brehon, while your question has merit, I'm a little confused with the biblical quote at the beginning.

In response to your question. I don't believe that we can justify our high rates of birth. Ideally, couples should look at their resources, both current and future, and ask themselves how much they can actually support. Celtic brings up a good point that depending on religion and national origin, having many childern is natural. I'm going to assume, and please correct me if I'm wrong, that Celtic may be referring to Catholic doctrines against birth control. I only say this because usually when you meet a traditional Catholic family, such as my own, you see a large amount of children (this could also be extended to Mormons and various other sects). In this case, one still must examine if they are capable of producing a child, and then decide to have intercourse. Again, this is extremely idealistic and unlikely to happen, nonetheless, I believe it to be the right approach.

Urbanization is a little more complicated. On the one hand, it has made life much more enjoyable while at the same time making it much more hazardous.

Using the biblical quote, I think we can see that yes, God did intend for us, as the only rational creatures on earth, to rule over all. Note that He does not say that we should exploit, ruin and destroy the earth, but that we should rule over all. Here, I believe He assumes a just rule, even though we are far from it. God realizes that we sin and that we are nowhere near His perfection so we can never perfectly rule over this earth. Nonetheless, it is our responsibility to do so. Just as we are not to sin, we are not to abuse our rule over this earth.

quote:

And thus the question I want to ask is this. Can we morally justify our high rates of birth and urbanisation?

Ehhh.....

There is a high birth rate because in some countries and religions, haveing 12 children seems suitable and sane.

Urbanisation is needed, I think. Well, not, but it will happen regardless. People will leave the poor countryside to go into the city, where jobs are more abundant and just a better life in general.

But charging wouldn't cause that. birth control would.

One family in my town has 7 children and they really shouldn't. They're not that rich. their two oldest children are really smart, but their parents can't afford good colleges for them. it's kindof sad that they may get a worse education even though they are really smart just because tehir parents have 5 younger children to support.

The pint is to keep them from having a second child in the first place yogore!

It's impossible to charge people to have children. Raising them takes enough money.

No not really we need to scale down on the birht rate but I don't like abortion so is 100% effective birth control the solution or perhaps this idea may help: "every one may have one child for free then the next child costs 1 million dollars and the third child costs 2 million and so on."

just some thoughts