I went hunting between rainstorms yesterday and bagged a nice buck. It was rainy and windy all day, but I was bored and decided to go sit on a stand. Deer were moving like crazy and the big buck chased a couple of does right by my stand which led to his demise. I hope he didn’t breed too many does with his inferior genetics.
I called around and finally, a friend found a needy family to give it to. I also got the number of five families who are related that live on the meat throughout the year and I will be sending more deer their way as I continue to thin them from my herd. My wife asked me if it was going to be like this next year. I have culled some 14 deer with about ten more to go to meet the goals of the state wildlife biologist that is advising me how many and which bucks and does to take. I told her yes and she shook her head. It is a lot of work to manage even a small herd.
Fortunately, I have a Bobcat with a loader and can drive to most of them and just roll them into the bucket. I then take them to my barn where I can hoist them up with an electric winch and weigh them and gather the scientific data that the state desires. Whoever wants the deer then comes and gets it and I call it a day.
So, this morning I’m going again. I have found a very nice trophy buck I’m pursuing and have been relentlessly hunting him for weeks. I have only seen him twice and cameras indicate he only comes out late at night. In the meantime, I have let many good bucks go because I want to keep them as breeder bucks only taking out the culls which genetically will never grow big antlers. I would also take my trophy buck if I could ever catch him making a mistake.
So lately I have been reading that many of the elite ultra-rich like Bill Gates thinks we should eliminate people in much the same manner. Euthanasia is gaining in popularity. I read where a young vibrant Canadian soldier who happened to be a female went to their version of the VA hospital for treatment. She had been waiting to see a doctor for a relatively minor ailment for months, and when she complained they offered her a choice of euthanasia. Can you imagine treating one of their soldiers in such a manner? It seems many think our planet is overpopulated. Many think that Hitler’s plan of developing a super race comprised of pure Germans and culling what he deemed to be the genetically inferior people is the best way to go.
They set themselves up as mini gods, (and of course, they are not on the list of culls). Older people like me and babies will be the first to go. God gave us dominion over the animals, birds, and fish, but not the right to kill human beings. Life is sacred to God. In the animal kingdom, we take what we need for food and use the meat and hides to our advantage. Cows, sheep, fish, and fowl, are all ours to use, given to us by God Himself. We remember that life is sacred, and an important part of dominion is proper management of our resources. As with many things, humankind has perverted this holy and pure process to include eradicating children with abortion, euthanizing the old, the sick, the deformed, the lame, the mentally deficient, and sterilization.
At the time of this writing, there are approximately 7.1 billion people in the world. That’s a lot of people, but to put that number in perspective, there are about 7.5 trillion square feet of land in the state of Texas, in the United States, alone. This means that, theoretically, every person in the world could fit in the state of Texas, and each person would have 1,056 square feet of living space – 4,224 square feet for a family of four! One might say that the problem is not the number of people but rather the lack of resources (food, water, etc.) and the ability to distribute those resources.
If all the people on Earth could fit comfortably in Texas, imagine all the room people would have if they spread out evenly over an entire continent. How much room would everyone have if all of Africa (11.7 million square miles), for example, was used for housing? (The answer is about 1 acre per person.) Even if we remove the Sahara Desert from the equation, Africa, the second-largest continent, would have plenty of living space for every person on the planet and still have room for water, arable land, roads and other infrastructure. The point is, the earth has lots of room, and the world’s population should not need to be “controlled.”
The biblical answer to “overpopulation” is not to demand fewer people, especially if that involves culling the current population. The biblical answer is to honor people enough to provide for their needs. There may be a difficulty with how the population is distributed and with how resources are managed, but the problem is not too many people on Earth. Greed, lust for power, and foolishness lead to the mishandling of resources, and millions of people suffer as a result. We are to love our neighbors and treat them as we would like to be treated.
Mark 12:31
‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”