2007-08-16

Al Mohler still wants us to have more babies

Here's the link, but I'm not going to quote anything.

Basically, Mohler makes the following assumptions:

  1. Having less babies will inevitably lead to economic crisis.
  2. Europe's birth rate is low while its Muslim population has high birth rates, leading to an Islamic Europe.
  3. The choice to not have babies is essentially a selfish one.
  4. That childlessness has at its basis a form of pseudo-science that originated with Hitler.
  5. America's relatively high birthrate is because of altruistic efforts to make the world a better place.
  6. Modern Europe will decline like the Roman Empire.
Let me point out some simple rebuttals, each numbered according to Mohler's assumptions above.
  1. Countries with low birthrates (below 2.1 children/woman) will eventually begin to shrink. There are substantial savings to be made, especially in the area of infrastructure (roads, electricity, water, rail) and housing. With less people inhabiting the same space as a previous generation, there will be no need to build major infrastructure projects and housing will be relatively cheap.
  2. First generation immigrants will often reflect the birth-rates of their land of birth. Thus women from a high birth-rate country will still have lots of babies in their new country (such as Europe). However, their children and their grandchildren will have babies at the same rate as the nation around them. Muslims in Europe now may be having lots of babies... but the next generation of European-born Muslims won't. (Iran, btw, has a low birthrate - below replacement level. Iranians are mainly Islamic and do not live in a rich country... yet their birthrate is low)
  3. There is no passage in the bible which directly commands human beings to have a minimum of 3 children. Moreover, scientific studies into animal birthrates show that many animals choose to put off reproduction when times are "tough".
  4. I won't even bother to argue this one. Mohler breaks Godwin so he loses.
  5. *Choke*. America is wonderful and unselfish because the people have lots of babies? What sort of argument is that? Besides, US birthrates are on their way down... which, for Mohler, would probably indicate the growing godlessness of America. It's sad to see that the same guy who signed The Cambridge Declaration - which states that the inerrant Scripture to be the sole source of written divine revelation, which alone can bind the conscience - is binding the consciences of Christians with the unbiblical drivel he espouses here.
  6. As I mentioned a few days ago, invoking the fall of the Roman Empire to bolster your argument is getting to be as bad as Godwin these days.

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