I have great respect, appreciation and affection for my demographer friends at the U.S. Census Bureau where I had the honor to serve as Director in the early years of the Reagan Administration. One number often discussed at the Bureau is "2.1", the number of live births per woman required to sustain a population. We in the U.S. have been under that number since the Baby Boom ended and the advent of The Pill. Now it seems we have reached it again. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/20/AR2007122002725_pf.html
That is good news for the obvious reason that it takes young people to keep the old people going, whether we are talking about jobs that need to be filled or Social Security that needs all the enrollees it can get. But it also is good news for the less obvious and immaterial reason that people are Earth's most wonderful and productive resource. Grouches like the Earth First crowd--the sort that think Nature would be better off without us--have little understanding of the true genius of humanity. It is that genius that has made it possible for literally billions of people to be added to the Earth since I was born and, simulataneously, for overall hunger, poverty and disease to decrease.
Among the babies being born right now are the future inventors, entrepreneurs, scientists, poets and philanthropists. They will help us all. Speaking personally, it was very satisfying at our recent Discovery Institute Open House to see all the families. I am only partly joking when I say that our employment policy is "pro-natalist". It seems that hardly a month goes by without the announcement of a new marriage or a new birth among our fellows, staff and members. That gives me hope because I know the fine quality of these people.
Darwinists, Malthusians, materialists of all stripes and dimensions don't get it. They also don't understand the reason Christians this night in the year are filled with joy to learn again of a newborn baby in a Bethlehem stable. It is because his birth is telling us that life is not finite, life is infinite.
How can one be angry with anyone today, even our adversaries? If they cannot accept a "Merry Christmas" greeting, may they still know that we wish them well.