Professor Hopes for Pandemic

Source: Focus on the Family www.family.org


University of Texas zoologist says earth has 90 percent more people than it should.

According to Genesis, we're made in the image of God. According to Eric Pianka, a professor at the University of Texas, we're no more important than bacteria.

Pianka recently said that 6.5 billion people living on the planet is too many. He's calling for a 90 percent reduction and is just waiting for a good pandemic to take care of the problem.

"Every one of you who gets to survive has to bury nine," Pianka tells students as part of his "doomsday talk," which outlines humanity's failings and his predictions for how civilization will end.

Those ideas are getting some rave reviews in the halls of academia, but generating outrage just about everywhere else.

Joe D'Agostino, vice president of communications for the Population Research Institute, said the concept is nothing new. Thousands of years ago, it was also widely believed that human reproduction was harmful to the earth.

"And the same idea is here today and sometimes goes under the name 'radical environmentalism,' " he told Family News in Focus. "These radical environmentalists are anti-people; they're anti-human. It really goes to show the real hatred among scientists and others for the human race."

Christians, D'Agostino added, should fight back against the notions of radicals like Pianka.

"Instead they allow themselves to be intimidated," he said. "They accept the idea that religious freedom means freedom from religion, and they're worried about offending people."

Gary Alan Taylor with Focus on the Family's Truth Project said that's why the ministry is aiming to teach a Christian worldview through the video curriculum. The need is palpable, since according to a Barna Research poll, only 9 percent of born-again believers show evidence of having a Christian worldview.

"It does give you an understanding of God's design for all of life," Taylor said of The Truth Project, "and then it leads us into a very practical way in which we can engage culture."

FOR MORE INFORMATION
To learn about The Truth Project from Focus on the Family, visit the ministry's Web site.