Collapse

Another book for me to check out, sooner or later...

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, by Jared Diamond
Diamond's "Tokugawa Shoguns vs. Consumer Democracy," "The Ends of the World as We Know Them"

New Yorker book review of Collapse.

Is there a conflict between overpopulation and its effects and God's wisdom and providence? Or should we even attribute the effects to a 'problem' of overpopulation? Many who claim that there is overpopulation are also avowed atheists, or see human beings as nothing more than animals, animals that pose a threat to themselves and to all other forms of life. Some see nothing but a problem that may require drastic (and intrinsically evil) solutions, such as enforced sterilization, and expanded availability of abortion.

Now, if human beings were acting morally and prudentially, conserving resources and respecting local ecologies, as well as sharing resources and wisdom with others in a just manner, and there were still problems because of lack of resources, then one might question God's goodness. However, that is not what we have here--our problems are the result of sin--whether it be tyrannical governments, a failure to constrain our appetites and consumption, or some other moral failure. Without God to keep things in perspective, it would be rather easy to turn to saving one's self and one's own, and blaming everyone else for their ignorance and way of life. Charity requires us to do what we can for others, especially when we aware of the difficulties our societies face. There is no room for that poisonous attitude that seeks to embrace the death of others as a source of solace or as a vindication of one's own false wisdom.