Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Ignore prophets of doom
From the RoundTable blog
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Tracy Hall Jr.
Hall is a retired scientist (Novatek, IntelliServ) living in Provo Canyon, Utah.
In his piece "The fundamentalist population bomb" (June 26 commentary) Daniel Malore wrongly characterizes Mormons as "fundamentalists" whose irresponsible family size will doom our planet.
This label "fundamentalist" certainly does not apply to members of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who take a very clear-eyed view of this world and are among the most energetic in trying to make it a better place.
Mormons are one of the most highly educated and creative of religious communities. My father synthesized diamond (working for General Electric in 1954), thereby freeing the world from dependence on the extremely limited natural sources of this essential industrial material.
Diamond grinding of ceramics, glass and tungsten carbide tooling increase the efficiency and precision of countless manufacturing operations. Diamond cutting and grooving of concrete makes safer roads. Diamond sawing of stone provides durable and beautiful building materials. Diamond cutters for oil and gas bits (to which my brother and I have contributed) have helped discover and develop new reserves of oil and gas. Half a century after his discovery, diamond grit is now a commodity, selling for about $7 per pound.
My mother was a "lowly" homemaker who devoted her energies to raising responsible, well-educated children. All seven of us are productive members of society. Who can say that the planet is not better off for our having been born? All nine of my own children are responsible and contributing adults. Who presumes to judge that the planet is worse off for their existence?
The answer to the world's problems does not lie in preventing God from sending his spirit children to dwell upon his footstool: It lies in raising his children to apply intelligence, creativity, love and devotion to proper use of God's gifts, including his gift of the Earth itself.
That is the kind of children that Mormons raise. For the past 60 years, Utah has been the highest state per capita in the educating of scientists and engineers. In contradiction of Malore's "fundamentalist" label, and in contrast to what is seen in the general population, surveys show that the indicators of faith among Latter-day Saints actually increase with increasing level of education. (angelfire.com/az2/saintsci)/
Malore seems to have forgotten that the world did not starve to death in the 1970s, as prophesied by Paul Ehrlich in his best-selling dud, "The Population Bomb." Why did we not starve? Largely because of revolutions in agricultural production. Who brought about that revolution? People who might not have been born had the "fundamentalist" acolytes of the likes of Malthus, Ehrlich and Malore prevailed.
Malore admits that he knows "lots" of Mormon teens and thinks they are "sweet, innocent and good workers." Malor's impression is quantified by Dr. Kenda Creasy Dean of the Princeton Theological Seminary. In a report titled "Mormon Envy," she wrote that the National Study of Religion and Youth showed "consistent portrayal of Mormon young people as 'topping the charts' in terms of spiritual vitality, depth of religious understanding, salience of faith in their daily lives, hope for the future, and general well-being as adolescents." (mormonteenagers.blogspot.com/)
Hope for the future!
What is puzzling is that Malore fails to understand that "sweetness," "innocence" and "good work" will result in greater wisdom, kindness and fairness in the use of the world's resources, together with better recycling of those resources and creation of resources not yet imagined, as was the case with synthetic diamond.
The National Study of Youth and Religion also just happened to show that Mormon teens are the least likely of all religious groups to believe in psychics and fortune tellers. (youthandreligion.org/news/2004-1013.html)
Which means that Mormons will continue to ignore prophets of doom like Malore.
