Should We Worry About Declining Birth Rates?

Friends, in 1968, a book called The Population Bomb written by entomologist Paul Ehrlich helped spark panic in the West that the global population was reaching a breaking point, saying too many human beings would soon cause widespread famine and social chaos.

This view that a growing human population is an existential threat to humanity remains widespread to this day. For example, University of Chicago political philosopher Martha Nussbaum recently stated that given the world’s current population, “no one should be having any children.” Contemporary empirical evidence, however, points in exactly the opposite direction. Deaths are already outpacing births in many regions of the world, resulting in precipitous declines in national populations. Is this good news for humanity? Are public policies aimed at population control justified? Is there such a thing as an ideal population size? Should anyone care about whether others choose to have children or not?

A listener asks whether we should continue going to confession if we keep committing the same sin over and over again.

00:00 | Intro
01:49 | Seminarians kick off school year
03:00 | Assessing population decreases across the globe
05:36 | Increased attitudes against having children
08:24 | Unpacking “culture of death,” ego-drama, and theo-drama
11:33 | Childbearing as a societal good
12:35 | Population capping through public policy
14:07 | Human population and the environment
17:03 | Utilitarianism as a faulty moral theory for addressing population concerns
18:51 | Foregoing childbirth to spare potential children pain
21:20 | Foregoing childbirth to favor economic security
22:33 | Foregoing childbirth for lack of desire
24:55 | Old age without children
28:00 | The centrality of fruitfulness
29:14 | Pope St. Paul VI’s prophetic ban on artificial contraception
30:57 | How does the Church look forward?
34:05 | Listener question: Does repeating sins disqualify me from Confession?
36:35 | Join the Word on Fire Institute

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[lindadokey]

Hello Bishop Barron, I am 79yrs old and we raised 8 Children. Just to speak of no Children, I cannot phantom. Just yesterday my Children unbeknownst to me purchased a new bed and delivered, put together so I may sleep better. They are all grown with Family of their own, in fact we as immediate family are 95 strong. I am a Great Great Granny of 5 and another on the way. Yes GOD has Blessed us Abundantly and though my husband passed 5 years ago I know he is excited along with all of us. I Love listening to YOU and opening my eyes to so many things. GOD BLESS YOU ALWAYS 🙏 ❤

[R_manatee]

Gosh all these people talking about not having $ while having several children... those were times when people can survive in one salary. People can barely survive in one salary now. And then theres childcare costs.... too expensive to sustain one self... even more so to sustain a family. Sad society we live in.

[erinhernandez]

Bishop Barron please pray for me. I was a single mother of one child, a son. In April of this year he took his life. Now I am alone and struggling to find my purpose and feel such a loss not only of my dear son, but of all the life and effort I put into his life.

[deniserodkey]

I have severe mental illness in my family and my husband and I meet later in life. We do not have any children. We are happy; however, we are alone and our lives are not full.
Have your children; don’t destroy them. Live a full, happy life. Pray for healthy children and cherish the children God blesses you with!

[janemazzola]

Such an interesting topic. Another practical issue that countries of declining birth rates are facing is along w/the aging populations to be cared for, is also the fact of declining workers to work, underwrite taxes & programs. I was shocked to read the acceptance of euthanasia & numbers for ending lives of elderly people, which is legally being more acceptable in some USA States also.

On a different note: THANK YOU for listening/reading comments from multiple followers, about the rather disturbing, loud, interruptive music that has been drowning out the last parts of the podcasts/interviews. I noticed it was not there w/this program! :)

[thatsfunny]

I'd love to have children. I'm 34 and not yet married, so perhaps it's not in God's plan for me. I love to see families with lots of kids though

[aaronvt]

Perhaps you could speak on the dating crisis as a follow-up? In general but in Catholic circles specifically. I can attest to just how much of a trial it's become for young people and it is a massive factor in less children being born into the Church.

[WillHerrmann]

I think part of the problem is young people not getting married, and the Church being ill-equipped to deal with that. Most parishes have a high school program, then nothing until you are married with kids. In fact, premarital prep is the first time most will hear the Church talk about how they should form a good marriage. Why can’t we teach those who are single in their 20s?

[ChildofGod]

Heavenly Father protect my children. I’m overwhelmed because I’m on my own as a single mother. My husband passed many years ago. I have no one to turn to, but you. Heavenly Father. Give me strength Lord my sons are both special needs children. Guide me as I struggle to buy groceries, and as I struggle to pay rent every month. Please keep my sons safe and protect us from the evil ones of this world.💕

[MaraGilmore]

I am the youngest of 7 children and have 4 kids myself, growing up we didn't have much money but we knew we were loved. Someone I know told me how she only wanted 2 kids because she didn't want her children to "miss out" and this is her business but it's interesting because I feel the opposite happens, they miss out on a certain independence that comes from being in a big family, the push to go out on your own as an adult is sort of missing when you've been given everything already

[erric]

I think the people making the economic argument have no basis for that. People have been much poorer in the past and courageously had children anyway. Even in very recent times where they had aceess to contraception and abortion. This is a social-psychologically constructed crisis. It is a crisis of hope. Young people today have been raised to believe that the world is ending and that raising a family only serves to harm the children and kill the planet. They have been raised to be incredibly anxious and dependent, and therefore are terrified of the prospect of parenting and the daunting undertaking it represents. It's a perfect storm of secularism, the coddling of the mind (immaturity and stress intolerance), and the effects of social media (anxiety generation).

[ologedan]

Very nice comments here. This issue always reminds me of Bishop Fulton Sheen's podcast on so called "Birth Control".

We praise the Lord, The Truth and The Light for as always, enlightening your beautiful minds to shine out the darkness being shed around such "modern issues" .

Keep up the Good Works

[davideskridge]

Respectfully, these individuals obviously don't live in an overpopulated city or country. I live in Kathmandu, one of the world's most densely populated cities. When you see the impact of high population centers, i.e., pollution, noise, traffic, and, most importantly, the availability of water (a big problem in many cities worldwide), you will understand the problem with growing populations.

[garyspencer-salt]

I read many moral reasons to have children and agree, but as a business-minded person, any married couple in the West has to now battle the cost of the assets to support that decision over it formative years.

[bikecameraaction]

Isn't it extraordinary that the scientific and social science communities are often credited as the rational voices on these subjects? Yet, again and again, Bishop Barron and the clergy generally, speak unequivocal sense - and always out of love and for the protection of human life. I'm not a big fan of social media and its nefarious effects on (particularly) young minds, but I thank God for the opportunity for people to see and hear the counter-cultural, sane arguments put forward to a huge global audience by Word on Fire and other channels.

[Btn]

I work in financial services and work with about 200 very wealthy families— combined worth of about 3bil. It is very scary how many of them are committed to causes that support depopulation— it’s essentially eugenics. The organizations they donate securities to have the most ghoulish names.

[kentfrederick]

My mother was the last of 8 children and got a fair amount of picking on by her siblings.

That's one reason why I'm an only child.

My mother said that if I had one sibling, the college would have been cheaper, no law school, no braces, no music lessons or pricy stringed instrument.

On the other hand, for people who don't want children, they should ask who will help them in their old age?

I wound up cleaning gutters and running errands, when my parents aged.

By the time my father died, my mother had dementia. I had to pay her bills, do her banking, order her prescriptions, and oversee her medical care.

Frankly, a sibling would have been helpful.

[arashikagehayabusa]

Anecdotal experience as a Catholic parent, we moved last year to have more room for a bigger family. The high interest rate on homes has absolutely stopped that for us though, amongst other issues with the house and secondary infertility.

Now we face the real possibility of not being able to have anymore children. Economic impacts have definitely stopped us from having more children.

[TheDysgraphiaStudyJourney]

It’s declining because of the cost of living - and our morals are “if we can not feed ourselves - should we be bringing life into the world”.

[Smithjishin]

My main concern is how to survive all of these financial and political crisis, especially in light of the US political power scuffle. The government has really called things more difficult for its citizens, and we can't sit back and bear all the consequences of the bad governance.