I got human's....

[viriditas]

Oh and... if this is getting too controversial for the Laid Back Lounge, let me know where it should go instead...

[fester30]

It's all God's fault.  The all-knowing intelligent designer didn't see this coming when he made man without thinking to create something higher on the food chain that breeds slower and understands the concept of population control.  Or maybe it's part of his plan to have the world auto-correct us into the stone age.  I don't know I've been so confused since my prayers for rain in Texas caused floods in Vermont. 

[Sweetdeath]

Once again, religion is the main reason we have such a problem  with  over population.

Aside from that, I welcome colonization of other planets.  What's wrong with  that?

[viriditas]

There is an AWESOME book by Colin Tudge, Neanderthals, Bandits and Farmers which describes how humanity's discovery of agriculture enabled overpopulation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthals,_Bandits_and_Farmers

Farms need a lot of hands. Religions of the time merely told people what was the best advice for them at that time: make lots of babies so that you can have many workers for your farm. It's only in the past couple centuries that we've begun to see the limit, but this mode of living was planted 10,000 years ago. The ancient seeds of our demise are finally bearing fruit.

[Crow]

Why is it whenever iSok posts something not religious related people always jump down his throat.

I thought it was really funny, thanks for the laugh.

[leedan]

      If these big rocks were conscious I think they would be envious of others inhabitants to scratch there backs or simply to give them meaning.

[The Magic Pudding]

Why is it whenever iSok posts something not religious related people always jump down his throat.

I've noticed that with replies to AnimatedDirt as well.
I suppose we are expecting something disagreeable so that's what we see, sometimes anyway.

[Tank]

Why is it whenever iSok posts something not religious related people always jump down his throat.

I thought it was really funny, thanks for the laugh.

Some people can't see past the religion. I suspect another reason is that some people can't trust theists and read negative intent into all/any actions. So posting a comical cartoon is perceived as simply a sly way of getting to be liked so one lowers one's guard and later gets sucked into the theists world view.

I generally don't trust theists who lead with their theism, I also have an inherent distrust of theists who post on atheist forums as I have only ever met a couple (out of hundreds) that really didn't appear to have an agenda of insidious conversion.

I liked the cartoon though  

[Too Few Lions]

yeah, I thought that it was a really funny cartoon too, thanks iSok. I think we can say that the world's largest religions have actively contributed to the overpopulation of the Earth without it being seen as personally aimed at iSok or any other theist.

[Tank]

yeah, I thought that it was a really funny cartoon too, thanks iSok. I think we can say that the world's largest religions have actively contributed to the overpopulation of the Earth without it being a personal attack on iSok or any other theist.

I agree. The big two religions still largely promote unfettered reproduction, to the ultimate detriment of all people and organisms that exist on Earth.

[Stevil]

Why is it whenever iSok posts something not religious related people always jump down his throat.

I'm certainly guilty of this. I actually like iSok, I just read the post wrong, didn't have time to read it properly at work.

[iSok]

The people here that blame religion for the environmental problem's.....you cannot be taken seriously.

For example, US inhabitants make of less than 5% of the world population, while they are responsible for 60% of the
emission of carbondioxide by human beings.

It has nothing to do with religion, in fact I would say that religion would actually help the environment.
For centuries man always found happiness in the belief in Santa Claus and all that...
While recently it has shifted to materialism, it has to do with our newly invented lifestyle, especially our consumer culture.
We (the western world) are responsible for all of this, anyone denying that is simply living in ignorance.

About overpopulation, anyone here who gave posted the above comments should read the book written
by Susan George - How the other half dies, it will be an eye opener.

While I understand and admit that religion has it's downsides, some of the 'worst' persons I know are religious and some
of the best persons I know are agnostics. But one should not fall into ignorance and have an open mind about everything...........
No human being is perfect, but I would say that the one who's constantly self-reflecting is close, we should all do that.

(P.S. The reason why I am here is because I'm brainwashing many of you in secret, so one day you'll wake up and all of a sudden you'll be a theist, Amen..............)

[Too Few Lions]

The people here that blame religion for the environmental problem's.....you cannot be taken seriously.

For example, US inhabitants make of less than 5% of the world population, while they are responsible for 60% of the
emission of carbondioxide by human beings.

It has nothing to do with religion, in fact I would say that religion would actually help the environment.
For centuries man always found happiness in the belief in Santa Claus and all that...
While recently it has shifted to materialism, it has to do with our newly invented lifestyle, especially our consumer culture.
We (the western world) are responsible for all of this, anyone denying that is simply living in ignorance.

I agree 100% that consumerism and modern lifestyles have helped contribute to environmental change, but this isn't just a problem of the West.

I don't think that anyone's blaming religion for environmental change, we're saying Christianity and Islam have actively opposed birth control which has helped lead to a vastly overpopulated planet. Personally i think birth control is as important an issue as carbon emmisions, there are plenty of other ways that humans are fouling up the environment other than by carbon emmissions, and the more people there are, the more mess and waste they create.

Here's a link to a study that ranked each country by the environmental damage it's causing;

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100505092006.htm

In absolute global terms, the 10 countries with the worst environmental impact are (in order, worst first): Brazil, USA, China, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, India, Russia, Australia and Peru.

There are only two western countries in that list, and no European ones.

Also the world's 10 worst environmental performers according to the proportional environmental impact index (relative to resource availability) are: Singapore, Korea, Qatar, Kuwait, Japan, Thailand, Bahrain, Malaysia, Philippines and Netherlands.

There are quite a few Islamic nations in there, so I don't think it's fair to blame this solely on the West!

[Asmodean]

The people here that blame religion for the environmental problem's.....you cannot be taken seriously.

For example, US inhabitants make of less than 5% of the world population, while they are responsible for 60% of the
emission of carbondioxide by human beings.

I dunno'... There is a lot of religion over in States. 

That said, I don't blame humans for climate changes at all. Oh, we may be speeding them up, but causing them in the first place..? I'm not convinced. Climate has changed several times before industrial revolution, why would it not change now?

There are other environmental impacts of humans, such as habitat expansion, water, air and land pollution, disruption of ecosystems and the like. Those, we are guilty of.

That said, I'm a go burn some tires with paraffin 

It has nothing to do with religion, in fact I would say that religion would actually help the environment.

Maybe. By killing off all the humans eventually...

For centuries man always found happiness in the belief in Santa Claus and all that...
While recently it has shifted to materialism, it has to do with our newly invented lifestyle, especially our consumer culture.

How is religion a remedy against that, being a part of the consumer culture itself?

We (the western world) are responsible for all of this, anyone denying that is simply living in ignorance.

I dunno'... Them Chinese have plenty of coal power plants and in that region (China, India/Pakistan area), there are far too many people.

About overpopulation, anyone here who gave posted the above comments should read the book written
by Susan George - How the other half dies, it will be an eye opener.

I'll check it out. It would help having ISBN if you have it?

The thing with overpopulation though is that if we are to get the planetary average standard of living to that of an over-middle class European or North American resident, we will deplete the resources we have available quickly and I see no reason at all for me to compromise my standard of living just so some maniac can press out 12 kids in as many years.

While I understand and admit that religion has it's downsides, some of the 'worst' persons I know are religious and some
of the best persons I know are agnostics. But one should not fall into ignorance and have an open mind about everything...........

I still don't see why one would want to keep an open mind in regard to religion. But then my point of view on the matter has always been "Prove your god, then we'll talk"

but I would say that the one who's constantly self-reflecting is close, we should all do that.

Why..? Why would I waste my time self-reflecting unless I find an aspect of my life that is not working like I want it to and decide that I am the root of the issue?

(P.S. The reason why I am here is because I'm brainwashing many of you in secret, so one day you'll wake up and all of a sudden you'll be a theist, Amen..............)

Allahu ackbar to you too 

[The Magic Pudding]

The per capita comparisons aren't favourable for us, if I have two children and someone in Somalia has ten is it reasonable for my children to create five times the emissions/damage?

What responsibility do we allocate to client nations of forest destroying Indonesia, Malaysia and Brazil?

Australia is on the list and I'm sure we deserve to be, loss of species is such a problem due to us and our introduced rabbits, cats, foxes, cane toads, rats, goats, camels, pigs, horses, sheep, cattle, bees, dogs, carp, bilge water spread marine critters, Indian Minors, water buffalo, ants etc etc.

Hopefully the less delusional cultures will come up with technology that helps.