Reformation Faith Today

Stephen Moore, author of It’s Getting Better All the Time: 100 Greatest Trends of the Last 100 Years (paperbook) recently wrote in the WSJ an article titled Clear-Eyed Optimists. I read his paperbook a few years ago and found it very enlightening, if not startling.

Here is an excerpt from his recent article in the WSJ:

The future seemed mighty bleak back then (1960s), and you merely had to open the newspapers for the latest story confirming how the human species was speeding down a congested highway to extinction. A group of scientists calling themselves the Club of Rome issued a report called “Limits to Growth.” It explained that lifeboat Earth had become so weighed down with humans that we were running out of food, minerals, forests, water, energy and just about everything else that we need for survival. Paul Ehrlich’s best-selling book “The Population Bomb” (1968) gave England a 50-50 chance of surviving into the 21st century. In 1980, Jimmy Carter released the “Global 2000 Report,” which declared that life on Earth was getting worse in every measurable way.

So imagine how shocked I was to learn, officially, that we’re not doomed after all. A new United Nations report called “State of the Future” concludes: “People around the world are becoming healthier, wealthier, better educated, more peaceful, more connected, and they are living longer.”

Fascinating piece. What is the church’s role in this, if anything? Do you agree with Moore and with the UN for that matter? Is capitalism is at least partly responsible for this improvement in the human condition in your opinion?