Attenborough rips Church on population growth
March 17, 2011
Calling the Catholic Church “a major factor” in contributing to the world's “population problem,” broadcaster and naturalist David Attenborough told the Royal Society of Arts in London that governments should encourage their citizens to contracept.
“In India as a whole the total fertility rate is 2.8 births per woman,” he said. “In Kerala it is 1.7 births per woman. In Thailand last year, it was 1.8 per woman, similar to that in Kerala. But compare that with the Catholic Philippines where it is 3.3.”
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Posted by: damian.riggs8445 -
Mar. 19, 2011 10:56 AM ET USA
Attenborough's opinion of life is that it is not a matter of the gift of life, but of the convenience of life (his). Thank you, Chestertonian, you got it right!
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Posted by: Obregon -
Mar. 18, 2011 12:44 AM ET USA
O yes, whenever any couple in a Third World country has sex, the first thing that comes to their mind is obedience to the moral teaching of the Church. Such ignorance on the part of Attenborough is appalling. Does he not know the Church also teaches responsible parenthood?
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Posted by: bnewman -
Mar. 17, 2011 10:01 PM ET USA
David Attenborough is an old fellow, at least in his eighties. He has been well known for many years for his views on "overpopulation," and other themes dear to the progressive mind-set. He is not to be taken too seriously. The journalist must have had time on his hands and needed to fill a column for the Daily Mail, that day.
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Posted by: Chestertonian -
Mar. 17, 2011 6:41 PM ET USA
Another ignorant windbag. As populations shrink and age, in those countries, their economies will collapse as the workers' taxes fail to keep up with the weight of social services for the retired. Attenborough needs to pay attention to the demographers who are warning that birth rates need to go up, not down. He's at least a generation out of date on this issue, just like the global warming fanatics. The Catholic Church is exactly right, as ever.
