KNLS

There are lots and lots of people in the world. 6.7 billion of them, in fact. Those are the latest figures on world population, as compiled by the United States government. And the world keeps getting bigger. The U.S. Census Bureau predicts that by the year 2012 we will have 7 billion people. China is the largest nation on earth, with more than a billion people. Next comes India, then the United States, with 304 million.

With all these people, one wonders just how many people the world can sustain. William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. says it all depends on how well we human beings manage the resources God gave us. That’s very interesting. Some voices of gloom and doom have been saying there’s just too many people—that we’ll run out of food—that there will be famine and wars as people compete for resources. But the experts are saying we CAN survive....IF we are wise in using what we’ve been given.

The demographers are telling us we have to think of others as well as ourselves. And that idea is a Christian one. To share, to put the other person first, to place a priority on the common welfare...these are virtues that Jesus preached and his followers practiced. Now we can see that these are not only good and virtuous. They are the key to our very survival as people. These population studies tell us the future is not to be feared. We CAN survive. But we have to work together. Jesus said, “Love each other.” Isn’t that really what this is all about?

That’s Today’s News and the Good News. I’m Doug Poling