Britain's chief rabbi blames Richard Dawkins and secularists ("neo-Darwinians") for a falling birthrate?

Question

Lol, he actually came up with the term "neo-Darwinians" for secularists!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/83458…

Even though this world is grossly overpopulated, and the *entire world* is facing a falling fertility rate:
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cf…

What do you think of this guy's assertion?

I think this rabbi must know nothing about resource-consumption, global warming, overcrowding, and standards of living...

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

Ooh, dear. For an intelligent man (and he IS an intelligent man), Rabbi Sacks does seem to be making a bit of an *** of himself.

He doesn't seem to recognise that Europe is responsible for a massively high consumption of non-renewable resources and an overcrowded region. A falling birth rate is pretty essential.

I'm surprised he's so ignorant about all the things you mention. I don't know huge amounts about Orthodox Jews, but the Reform Movement in the UK is so hugely hot on environmental issues, seeing it as an intrinsically Jewish perspective to worry about the planet and our fellow-humans, that I had rather assumed the UHCs were along the same lines.

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

Good to see you, as always :)

Answer 2

just another religious idiot looking for a scapegoat.

no biggie.

Answer 3

*cough* carrying capacity *cough*

Answer 4

So on the one hand theists complain that atheists are sexually promiscuous, and on the other hand, they complain that the birth rate is declining because of us.

It seems we cannot win in this game they play.

Source(s):

An atheist perspective.

Answer 5

He speaks total nonsense.
Atheist.

Answer 6

Survival of the fittest.

I'm praying for babies with machine guns to turn the odds in their favor

Answer 7

Statistically speaking, atheists have less children than religious people overall. That may be what he was referring to.

Answer 8

It actually has more to do with economics and education than religion. There may be other factors as well but Europe is a long way from dying off.

When I was in highschool in the 1970s people were alarmed that that world population was three billion. Now it's more like seven billion. Population more than doubled in four decades. I don't know how many people the world can support but we've been experiencing exponential population growth and it can't be sustainable forever.

Lord Sack is blowing smoke. I'd say he's is more concerned with outbreeding Muslims and other competing superstitions than with the planet becoming depopulated.

Answer 9

Frankly, it seems he's really worried that so-called "third-world countries," simply by producing more babies, are going to rob Mother England of all her glory.

The way I see it, England is leading the way in sustainability and intelligent, voluntary population control.

Paul

Answer 10

He probably thinks we are out there pushing our birthcontrol pills and condoms on the street corner like crack. That is too funny.

Answer 11

The rabbi is silly. Why does Britain need a rabbi for anyways? "Lord" Saks does not know anything other than his torah. The reason for falling birthrate especially in Europe is due to being a post-industrialized nation. When a country becomes wealthy, with equality for its citizens, women stark working outside the home, birth control becomes available you are going to see smaller families. This is what happend during the industrial revolution! This is the fruit of that.

Usually, it's the poorer countries that have large families and we can see this is in sub-Sahara Africa or many Latin American countries. And the rich ones like Denmark, Norway, Sweden, or England that have very small families. It's a huge oversight to blame it on Dawkins if women aren't giving birth to lots of children.

It also bothers me that he somehow equates large families with happiness. Does he think that all these families can afford many children? No, not from what I've seen. Go to any country outside Europe or the U.S. and you would find a poor family living in a hovel basically with 5-7 children who barely have enough to eat. Does the rabbi think that is good? Yeah, the parents are too ignorant to use birth control and sometimes send the children to work to support the family. I'm sure the rabbi sees this as something moral because as long as we all have a brood of children then what does it matter if we can provide for them?

If he wants more children in England then he is going to start to ban birth control, restrict women working outside their houses which we all know isn't going to work.

Source(s):

atheist