In the linked article, Oliver "Buzz" Thomas postulates that our religion might be killing us. His rationale? The "dire" need for climate change (one wonders why he is wasting so much time on an electrically powered computer if the need is so dire). He believes that opposition to birth control, which is characteristic of the Roman Catholic Church as well as many Orthodox Jewish and Muslim sects, and the encouragement of large families in faiths such as the LDS church. He argues that instead of offering tax breaks for children, we should provide incentives for having fewer (read: penalties for having too many).

His argument is absurd, and it unravels when the opposite theory is proposed. Instead of talking about banning childbirth, why don't we focus on eliminating our senior population? They've lived a good life, and if we didn't spend so many of our health care dollars caring for octogenarians with limited life expectancy, we would better be able to spend health care dollars for younger families. It would also increase our GDP, as we would be focusing our resources on those who are coming into the workforce rather than those who are leaving it (and, on a slightly more cynical note, how many greenhouse gasses would we be preventing by turning off the ignition on those fuel inefficient motor homes that make their annual pilgrimages south in the winter and north in the summer?).

While it's easy to cry "overpopulation", the fact remains that only certain parts of the planet are overpopulated. And the United States is NOT one of those parts, not by a longshot.  While some of our major cities would argue, there are vast open spaces in the country. To propose that we begin putting cuffs on religion (or, worse, proposing, as Thomas does, that preaching childlessness is morally equivalent to preaching for civil rights or against slavery) is absurd at its very core.

Now, I'm not saying every family should go out and have many children. That's a personal decision, and not one that the government, nor Planned Parenthood, nor, frankly, the church, should feel free to usurp. We're not in the crisis that people like Oliver Thomas demand, and, frankly, they don't believe their own hype. I may have missed the news, but I haven't heard any news stories about the urban pockets in which these misguided people live converting over to pedal power and public transit.

Ironically, it is people like Thomas who could do the most harm to the United States. As the baby boomers age into retirement, there will be fewer people in the workplace to support those who are going into retirement. This will also mean fewer taxes being collected, meaning less money for education, and all other government expenditures, including the pet environmental projects that these people are so fanatical about. And in the long run, nobody wins.