Birth Uncontrolled

Introduction
Russell Shorto's feature in the Sunday New York Times, "Contra-Contraception," clearly shows just how backward conservatives are, especially Christian conservatives. Where those people are headed is back to ancient times, thinking in ancient ways. Their sorts of beliefs shows how powerful a make-believe world can be: even more powerful than the reality in one's eyes. The divide between Red and Blue States is not just a political controversy. It is even far more than a cultural controversy. It is a question of modernity ...

Introduction

Russell Shorto's feature in the Sunday New York Times, "Contra-Contraception," clearly shows just how backward conservatives are, especially Christian conservatives.

Where those people are headed is back to ancient times, thinking in ancient ways. Their sorts of beliefs shows how powerful a make-believe world can be: even more powerful than the reality in one's eyes. The divide between Red and Blue States is not just a political controversy. It is even far more than a cultural controversy. It is a question of modernity ...

The most jarring thing about Christian conservatives and others opposed to birth control is the complete irrelevance of present conditions to their beliefs. The necessary result of no birth control (in whatever form) would be an increase in births in the United States. Using Shorto's statistics, that might amount to more than 6 million annually, or about 2% of the population based on the abortion rate of 2.1%. When added to the present rate of population increase of some 2.1%, and not even counting pregnancies avoided by brith control (for which no statistics are available), population increasing over 4% annually doubles the population in just one generation, 25 years (less than 20 years, including effects of compounding).

So, think about it:

A radically Christianized U.S. with 600 million people by 2025.

Is this what the world really needs? How about,

India and China with 3 billion people each?

Earth populated with 15 billion or more people?

All within 20 years or so, within the lifetimes of most of those now living.

Now, based on current methods of providing for people's minimum needs, there is simply no way all those people can be fed. Even with dramatic applications of technologies only now imagined, it is unlikely all those people will live at a standard higher than today's most miserable African peasants.

Many people think this is not an important issue, certainly not important enough to set off the maximum level alarm. But, it is almost always the little things we don't see that get us. Where Christianity leads is to the end of the world. That is what they believe in, and what they want. They are, like fundamentalist Muslims, other-worldly. What the current controversies about birth control and abortion show, philosophically, is that the world is what you believe it is. The subjective dominates the obective.

I believe the Chrisitians were a major factor in the undoing of the Roman Empire, not because they opposed Roman barbarisms, but because they cared little for this world. Where conservative ideology leads is to total disaster, because today's highly organized societies will not stand against the rampaging of starving billions.

Those of us committed to this world and this life need to take action to limit conservative craziness. Chrisitians are entitled to their personal beliefs. They are not entitled to endanger everyone else, which is what they are doing. What everyone, but especially Americans and Arabs, needs to do is find a way to remove those people from power. Not to do so is allow a global calamity of unthinkable proportions.