For those of you who have been to Europe... Did you feel the same chilling effect of human secularism I feel when I'm over there?
A family means a mom and dad in their mid to upper 30's with (maybe) one child.
Religion is merely a historical fact, not a present reality.
Churches are museums that also serve as a place for funeral and wedding ceremonies.
My fear is that it seems to be traveling west. This is a must read article.
2 comments:
Fascinating article Mark. I'm not sure when the article was written but it was interesting to hear him mention $60/barrel oil as high(it's now near $100), a poor economy in Europe(the economy has rebounded and the Euro is very strong) and violence in Iraq(violence has decreased a ton in the past 6 months). It would be interesting to read an update from him, those are reason for optimism, but his the general trends he mentioned are very real and yes, very chilling for sure.
Whereas the underpopulation problems of Japan and Europe are grave, it's also quite notable that the populations in so many African countries are quite a bit further off the charts in the opposite direction. According to wikipedia's "List of countries and territories by fertility rate", there are 31 countries where, in 2007, the average woman had 5 or more kids. The wikipedia article on overpopulation is perhaps even more sobering. By looking at such data, it looks like the Culture War might have another front: to educate the people of countries who are overpopulating themselves into poverty to find moderation. This could surely be added onto agendas that also include famine relief, poverty relief, tsunami relief, and AIDS education. In one respect, then, population-control missions seem very environmentalist, liberal, and distracting from evangelism, but on the other hand, they seem rather in line with the mission of an organization like World Vision, and with Jesus' injunction to love the poor and sick.
In the event that the West continues to depopulate and the rest of the world replace its population, one might wonder how much of the West's advacnes in the sciences, arts, and humanities will be transmitted to the 'replacement populations.' How dark will that age be?
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