Underpopulation
Not having “believed” in the crisis of overpopulation, when it was in style back in the ‘seventies, I have little trouble not believing in the crisis of underpopulation now. Neither will make our societies any better or worse. Making them better has always been an end in itself, quite distinct from statistics. Without such non-statistical, transcendental concepts as the good, the true, and the beautiful, things can only get worse, but I am confident the God who is their ultimate author will still exist. The more we separate ourselves from Him, the more we make ourselves into waste material, but the quantity of this waste is not really interesting. Our solar system is 100,000 astronomical units around, and even farther afield, there is plenty more space once we have filled that up with garbage.
And with no God, Christ, Spirit, there is no reason to stop expanding our immense cosmic junkyard. Indeed, there is no reason for us to bother remaining alive, as many of us have realized who became briefly enrolled in our various assisted suicide programmes. Perhaps they do us living favour by simply getting out of our way. Then, those with a sense of purpose will freely occupy the prime real estate, here on earth, and may compulsively try to improve it.
The women I seem to have least trouble getting along with are intellectually and biologically fecund. They tend to have large families, which takes a certain wilfulness. They will continue to generate “excess population” through time to come, while those not generating will peacefully die away. True, there may be some excitement, as the welfare plans collapse, and their pension accounts run out, but there is no rule preventing the rest of us from taking care of them in their aged feebleness, even if they are still cussing.
The proportion of “remainers” with a sense of purpose will thus continue to increase, and kindliness will thus persist, also, defeating modernity. These are and will be religious persons (and, by inclination, joyful), and whether they subscribe to one religion or another, who can project?
With little or less compulsion, regardless which murder and suicide cults endure, how marvellous it will be! For Christianity will always eventually prevail, in open competition. Deus vult!