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SOME HAVE
BABIES; OTHERS, REGRETS!
(Part 2)
Read Part1 here
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Philip P. Eapen |
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Author's webpage:
http://philip.eapen.googlepages.com
In this
series, Philip P. Eapen examines the claim
that the world is over-populated in the
light of biblical, historical, and scientific
data
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1. The Bible and Population Growth
When God created man, He created them male and female.
He then blessed them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and
fill th e earth, and subdue it.” This blessing gives
human beings a mandate to multiply in numbers and to
subdue the earth. The meaning and rationale of human
dominion has received wide attention from a variety of
Christian and Jewish scholars. In this book, the writer
proposes to examine the relevance of the mandate for
human multiplication in the light of current concerns
raised by environmentalists and economists regarding an
“explosive” population growth that threatens to lead the
whole world into deep trouble. These concerns and the
resultant projects initiated to “control” population
growth would then be examined for their relevance and
credibility. Initially, this work examines the views
held by God’s people on this subject as expressed in the
Bible. “The people of God” or “God’s people” includes
all who lived in a covenant relationship with God. It
certainly includes Israel of the Old Testamen
t times and the Church of Jesus Christ.
Firstly, I shall attempt to identify the views the
writers of the Bible or the Israelites in general held,
if any, about human procreation, about a growing
population and its economic ramifications. An attempt
will be made to understand Israel’s views in context and
to explore Israel’s motivations behind her stated views.
1.1. Israelite views on Population Growth
The Bible, at first reading, gives the impression that
the people of God portrayed in its pages counted
children as a blessing. Multiplication in numbers was
seen in a positive light. As a psalmist sang,
Behold, children are a gift of the LORD,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one’s youth.
How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them;
They will not be ashamed
When they speak with their enemies in the gate.(Psalm
127:3-5; Ps. 128:1-4.)
Israel thus regarded children as a national treasure.
Happy children at play were regarded as a symbol of
national well-being, a symbol of peace and prosperity,
just as weddings were.
“Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘Old men and old women
will again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each man
with his staff in his hand because of age. ‘And the
streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls
playing in its streets.’” (Zechariah 8:4-5 NASB)
Similarly, the presence of bridegrooms and brides
indicate weddings. When God foretold the destruction of
His people, He proclaimed through Jeremiah that weddings
would cease (Jer. 7:34; 25:10). When God promised a
restoration of His people, He said that weddings would
once again take place in the land, and that boys and
girls would once again play in the streets (Jer. 33:11;
Zechariah 8:4-5).
Moses concluded his presentation of God’s Law to the
people of Israel by motivating them to obey God. “See, I
have set before you today life and prosperity... I
command you today to love the LORD your God ... that you
may live and multiply” (Deuteronomy 30:15-16 ). It is
interesting to note that life and prosperity are clubbed
together in this verse.
Similarly, in a society where barren women were
vulnerable to oppression and ridicule (1 Samuel 1:6;
Luke 1:36), a Hebrew psalmist recounted how God blesses
barren women with children.
“He raises the poor from the dust And lifts the needy
from the ash heap,
To make them sit with princes, With the princes of His
people.
He makes the barren woman abide in the house As a joyful
mother of children. Praise the LORD!” (Ps. 113:7-9 NASB)
The psalm echoes Hannah’s exultation after Samuel was
born (1 Samuel 2:7-8 ). Here, the elevation of a barren
woman to the blessed state of motherhood was considered
no less an act of God compared to the elevation of a
poor man from the ash heap to the portals of royal
power.
1.2. Did all people of old share Israel’s views?
Israel’s enthusiasm for a growing population was not
shared by all nations of ancient times. The Atrahasis
epic of the Babylonians describes how the gods
considered humans as pests, and how they inflicted
humankind with plagues to control their population:
Twelve hundred years had not yet passed
When the land extended and the people multiplied.
The land was bellowing like a bull,
The god got disturbed with their uproar.
Enlil heard their noise
And addressed the great gods:
The noise of mankind has become too much for me,
With their noise I am deprived of sleep.
Let there be a pestilence (upon mankind).
(Tablet I, lines 352-60 cited in Anne D. Kilmer, “The
Mesopotamian concept of overpopulation and its solution
as reflected in the mythology.” Orientalia 41 (1972)
166.)
Cohen cites the complaint of Han Fei-Tzu, who lived in
Iraq around 500 BC:
People at present think that five sons are not too many
and each son has five sons also, and before the death of
the grandfather there are already 25 descendants.
Therefore people are more and wealth is less; they work
hard and receive little (Joel E. Cohen, How Many People
can the Earth Support? (New York: Norton, 1995), 6).
The ancient Greek philosophers too preferred some degree
of state control over human population. Plato was
paternalistic in his attitude and wanted his ideal
Republic to control marriages and procreation (Plato,
The Republic of Plato, ed. and trans. Benjamin Jowett
(New York: P. F. Collier & Son, 1901). It was proposed
that people should gain the state’s permission before
they married or had children; the “best” men would be
paired with the “best” women. Although he desired that
the best men should have “as many sons as possible,” he
wanted to “prevent the State from becoming either too
large or too small.” Aristotle, however, thought that
one of Plato’s cardinal mistakes was that he had not
prescribed any means to “restrict the increase of
population” (Aristotle, Politica, in The Works of
Aristotle Translated into English under the Editorship
of W. D. Ross, M.A., Volume X, ed. Benjamin Jowett
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1921)). Aristotle wished for a
state that had “large enough” land inhabited by a
population “as small as we can make it”—a desire that is
not uncommon among modern people. And the motive behind
Aristotle’s prescription? An “abundance of leisure” and
resources for the state’s citizens.
Anxiety about increasing numbers of fellow humans is
clearly not a modern phenomenon. Even in ancient times
when communities or individuals moaned about increasing
population and about the resultant fragmentation of land
holdings, Israel held a positive attitude towards human
multiplication! Therefore, Israel’s perspective should
not be brushed aside as that from a primitive age when
all people everywhere favoured large families . It is
worthwhile to examine the reasons behind Israel’s
positive attitude towards multiplication and the factors
that motivated God’s people to have larger families. (To
be continued)
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This page
is updated on Sep 08, 2009 |
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