Can the Human Race Overpopulate the Planet?

by Terri Kammerzell

Truth of Genesis Ministry Partner

July 11 is an international day of observance: “World Population Day.” This annual event began in 1987, inspired by the public interest in “Five Billion Day,” when Earth’s population had crossed the 5,000,000,000 mark. Today, there is an estimated global population of over 7.5 billion, which means that in 33 years, the population has increased by approximately fifty percent. Should we be concerned that the global population will ever exceed Earth’s capacity?

If we were concerned about such a predicament, what types of humanitarian causes might we be inclined to endorse? Before we wander down that trail too much further, I think even as Christians, with a biblical worldview, we can acknowledge there are great humanitarian causes that help restore the dignities of population groups and help us demonstrate God’s love, pointing people to Him.

But, unlike many secular (humanistic) humanitarians, as Christians our focus really should not be on what the human race has done, is doing, or will do to impact the earth, but rather on what God has done, is doing, and will do to and with His creation.

Six times—at the end of each working day of Creation—we read in Genesis 1 that “God saw that it was good” or “very good.” How good was it?  In the Song of Moses recorded in Deuteronomy 32, Moses says of God in verse 4 that His “work is perfect.” As far as the planet itself goes, science confirms God created it perfectly to sustain life (something we will explore in a future Fun Fact). Based on Moses’ song and our studies of DNA, we can believe the first set of animals created—be they air, water, or land—were created flawlessly. God saw that His work was “very good,” and “very good” meant “perfect.”

We also know God gave a command to Adam and Eve, as well as to Noah’s family, to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth (Genesis 1:28; 9:1; 9:7), so we know His intention for this planet for this time we are in was that the population should continue to grow, just as it is doing.

Finally, we also know that God has an expiration date (which only He knows) for this temporary home of ours (Matthew 5:18, 24:35; Mark 21:33; 2 Peter 3:10; Revelation 21:1; etc.).

But what about the expiration date of the people God has created? This is an interesting Fun Fact from the biology category:
What is gene depletion?
Gene depletion, also known as genetic entropy, is the observed fact that many variations within one kind are caused by mutational losses.
This Fun Fact has some terms that might be unfamiliar to many people, especially those who didn’t particularly enjoy their high school science classes. Let’s break it down a bit:

• Entropy is a measure of disorder. When something is orderly (or “very good”) and it becomes disorderly, the amount of change in order can sometimes be measured by its entropy. Most often, we see this in the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which we will discuss at a later time this year.
• The term “gene depletion”—and the basic principle of this Fun Fact—I learned from my friend Russ Miller, the Off-Grid Creationist and founder of Creation, Evolution & Science Ministries. He argues that, when combined with natural selection, gene depletion makes Darwinian evolution a scientific impossibility. Gene depletion is a loss of information, and the idea of Darwinian evolution is predicated on a gain of new (beneficial) information. We will discuss this more later this year too!
• Finally, Dr. John Sanford, retired Cornell geneticist and the President of Logos Research Associates, coined the term “genetic entropy,” and wrote a book on the topic. He explains that genetic entropy, or genetic degeneration, demonstrates that we are experiencing a mutation, or erosion, of our genes at a high rate. Our genetic coding, or DNA, is becoming more disorderly. Genetic entropy happens at a personal level, throughout the course of a person’s life, but genetic entropy also happens from generation to generation. We inherit mutations from our ancestors.

So, putting it all together, when creation scientists study DNA and the law of entropy, they see that over time our genetics have been withering and decaying. It’s kind of like making a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy. By the hundredth copy, there will be many flaws, or mutations even if the original was “very good.”

Just how many more generations does the human race have left before no more legible “copies” can be made? That’s an answer scientists have not been able to officially pinpoint yet. But when we consider what the Bible says, it is certainly evident that God does not intend for unlimited generations of the human race. Indeed, we can trust that just as Earth has an expiration date, Earth’s population has a maximum. Both are numbers that only God knows. And both are situations that humans, in our limited and finite capacities, have no ultimate control over. We are the creation, and the Creator is not only omnipotent and omniscient, but also true and loving when He tells us in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you, . . . plans for your welfare, not for disaster; to give you a future and a hope” (HCSB). In these days of confusion and chaos in the world around us, is your hope in the God Who made you?
 
Don’t just take my word for it! Visit YouFormedMe.com/geology/geneDepletion.html to read, watch, and listen to supporting research and commentary from scientists, doctors, theologians, and more!
This blog is from a special series of “Creation Fun Facts” by Terri Kammerzell, starting from June 10, 2020. Read the introduction at TruthOfGenesis.com/blogs/building-a-biblical-defense-of-creation.