“Be fruitful, and multiply? — Or save our Earth?” asks a provocative full-page ad appearing in the New York Times on April 22 in observance of Earth Day.
The message points out that in the past century, the number of humans on the planet has more than quadrupled, and that by 2025, there will be 9.7 billion of us. “The Earth has been replenished, and then some!” maintains FFRF.
FFRF criticizes the Vatican and many Christian fundamentalist sects for continuing to deny women control of their fertility, even amid this explosive population growth.
“In a religious quest to ‘have dominion over every living thing that moves upon the Earth,’ humans have encroached upon and befouled our planet. The extinction rates are alarming,” FFRF notes in the sobering ad.
We have lost one in four North American birds since 1970, and during the same time frame, wildlife populations have declined by 73 percent worldwide. Human-caused climate change is now placing 1 million species at risk of extinction.
“Political obstructionists in the United States — science deniers primarily fueled by biblical doctrine, hubris or just plain greed — are playing their fundamentalist fiddles while Rome burns,” FFRF charges. “Responsible stewards must protect reproductive rights and employ science and evidence-based decision-making to save this world, our only world.”
The advertisement urges readers to honor Earth Day by joining the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which is working to keep religion out of U.S. laws and social policies. The ad concludes with a little homily: “The only afterlife that should concern us is leaving our descendants — and planet — a secure and pleasant future.”
Asserts Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president: “It’s vital to the very preservation of our planet that the views of nonreligious individuals prevail when it comes to climate change mitigation.”
Pew Research Center surveys show that Americans who describe themselves as atheists, agnostics, or “nothing in particular” are far more likely to consider climate change a serious problem, while most highly religious Americans see climate change as a far less serious threat. Nine in 10 atheists accept the fact that the Earth is warming due to human activity, while only a third of evangelical Protestants do so.
In short, adds Gaylor, “The Christian nationalist capture of our federal government, which is already creating such havoc by undoing climate change mitigation and pollution controls, poses an existential threat to the future of life on our planet.”
The ad was made possible thanks to a generous donor and other members designating their donation for FFRF’s advertising fund.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to promoting the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters of nontheism. FFRF has more than 42,000 members, including members in every state and the District of Columbia.
