Save Humanity.. or Die Trying?

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The only reason I put this in the “Religion” section is because
1. I couldn’t find a more suiting section
2. I feel this involves people personal philosophies to answer.

An issue I’ve been thinking about for a while is:
What is the best course of action to keep us, as humans, alive and well?

What I mean is this... We are breeding non-stop all over the world. Most countries birthrates are higher than their death rates and have been for a long long time. People are living longer lives due to new advancements in health care, the abolishment of certain diseases, etc...

Right now, the only thing that keeps our numbers from climbing faster than it already is is certain super diseases (HIV), certain natural diseases (cancer), war and homicide. Even these currently are not enough to balance the birth/death rate scales. We are already quite overpopulated and if our numbers continue to rise, we very well could destroy ourselves due to overconsumption of resources.

I suppose that in this question, you have to define what “Best” means. Weighing between moral and practical options. Do we willfully let people die for population control? Do we continue to save everyone we can until we implode? Do we infringe on the human rights of others and limit the amount of children they can have?

Last edited 08 May 2008 11:31 am by Khorib

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I recommend reading the short story “The Winnowing” by Issac Asimov.
It’s interesting because it was written in the 70’s talking about the 6 billion population in 2005. (By the way, the population hit about 6 billion in 1999).
Anyway, it’s all about the “best” means of population control.