Peter-Another good read is Pope Benedict's first Encyclical, DEUS CARITAS EST. It seems a bloke in Perth reflects in similar lines with a bloke in Rome, and a few many more, though not yet enough.

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est_en.html

There are two parts to the Letter: "...The first part is more speculative, since I wanted here—at the beginning of my Pontificate—to clarify some essential facts concerning the love which God mysteriously and gratuitously offers to man, together with the intrinsic link between that Love and the reality of human love. The second part is more concrete, since it treats the ecclesial exercise of the commandment of love of neighbour..."

Extracts:1. "God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him" (1 Jn 4:16). These words from the First Letter of John express with remarkable clarity the heart of the Christian faith: the Christian image of God and the resulting image of mankind and its destiny. In the same verse, Saint John also offers a kind of summary of the Christian life: "We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us".

....3.... According to Friedrich Nietzsche, Christianity had poisoned eros, which for its part, while not completely succumbing, gradually degenerated into vice.[1] Here the German philosopher was expressing a widely-held perception: doesn't the Church, with all her commandments and prohibitions, turn to bitterness the most precious thing in life? Doesn't she blow the whistle just when the joy which is the Creator's gift offers us a happiness which is itself a certain foretaste of the Divine?...

4..... Did Christianity really destroy eros? Let us take a look at the pre- Christian world. The Greeks—not unlike other cultures—considered eros principally as a kind of intoxication, the overpowering of reason by a "divine madness" which tears man away from his finite existence and enables him, in the very process of being overwhelmed by divine power, to experience supreme happiness... +++ More a little later...

Continued....In the religions, this attitude found expression in fertility cults, part of which was the "sacred" prostitution which flourished in many temples. Eros was thus celebrated as divine power, as fellowship with the Divine .... The Old Testament firmly opposed this form of religion, which represents a powerful temptation against monotheistic faith, combating it as a perversion of religiosity. But it in no way rejected eros as such; rather, it declared war on a warped and destructive form of it, because this counterfeit divinization of eros actually strips it of its dignity and dehumanizes it.....

7..In philosophical and theological debate, these distinctions have often been radicalized to the point of establishing a clear antithesis between them: descending, oblative love—agape—would be typically Christian, while on the other hand ascending, possessive or covetous love —eros—would be typical of non-Christian, and particularly Greek culture. Were this antithesis to be taken to extremes, the essence of Christianity would be detached from the vital relations fundamental to human existence, and would become a world apart, admirable perhaps, but decisively cut off from the complex fabric of human life...

9. First, the world of the Bible presents us with a new image of God. In surrounding cultures, the image of God and of the gods ultimately remained unclear and contradictory. In the development of biblical faith, however, the content of the prayer fundamental to Israel, the Shema, became increasingly clear and unequivocal: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord" (Dt 6:4). There is only one God, the Creator of heaven and earth, who is thus the God of all.....The second important element now emerges: this God loves man... His love, moreover, is an elective love: among all the nations he chooses Israel and loves her—but he does so precisely with a view to healing the whole human race. God loves, and his love may certainly be called eros, yet it is also totally agape.[7]

*
The second part of the Encyclical covers the practice of charity in the world..- The Church's charitable activity as a manifestation of Trinitarian love.

Quote .....
"Pope Benedict XVI told Catholics to have more babies "for the good of society," saying that some countries were being sapped of energy because of low birth rates.
"Having children is a gift that brings life and well-being to society," he told about 15,000 people at his weekly audience in the Vatican, to which he arrived by helicopter from his summer residence southeast of Rome.
He said the decline in the number of births "deprives some nations of freshness and energy and of hopes for the future incarnate in children."
The pope also spoke of "the security, the stability and the force of a numerous family."
End Quote .....

AND .....

Peter says similar with ..... "The fact that our birth rate has dropped below replacement level and key institutions like marriage are increasingly under threat bears witness to the loss of the resilient self that is created in the meeting with God."

AND ....

Keiran says ....... I'm sure the good gardener, not being anthropocentric, nor greedy, nor ignorant, but being part artist and part scientist, would be guided by sustainability, the environment, biodiversity, and would welcome as well as advocate a stable, mature population and end this rapid, exponential, growth of the human population. From the cheerleaders of the good shepherd we hear false words and trubble.

Kieran.

Ahh the dark gospel of the ecology movement. Although looking after the environment is the most common sense, the ecology movement continues to undermine its credibility by canvassing all kinds of disasters and adopting the attitude that all species are to be equally valued. The use of the idea of sustainability certainly seems sensible until we try to find out what it means. For example, no mining can be sustainable since it relies on a limited resource. Should we stop all mining? It is said that our population us unsustainable but how would we reduce it? I refer Kieran to an article my myself at:

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=488

and a more recent piece by Frank Furedi at :

http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CB021.htm

enjoy

The scripture teaches we were made to bear the image of God Gen 1:26 the true image of our spirit ought to resemble the very nature of the Spirit of God, which we acclaim is what Christ displayed as one in whom God was fully revealed.

Compare Galatians 6: 22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 meekness, self-control; against such there is no law”. The true nature of God incarnate in his sons / daughters is revealed in love and forgiveness. Anyone not displaying this character is not born of God to use the terms of John 3: 8.

1 John 4: 7 – 12: “7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loves is begotten of God, and knows God. 8 He that does not love does not know God; for God is love. [This love is demonstrated by unconditional sacrifice] … 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No man hath seen God at any time: if we love one another, God abides in us, and in us is his love
perfected.”

Mark 12: 29, “Jesus answered, The first is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord
our God, the Lord is one: 30 and you shall love the Lord thy God with all
your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your
strength. 31 The second is this: Thou shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus condemned those that promoted lies, hatred and murder under the guise of following God such as religious zealots.
John 8: 42 “Jesus said to them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: …43 Why do ye not understand my speech? Even because ye cannot hear my
word

44 Your spirit is fathered by the devil, the lusts of your father it is in your will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and stands not in the truth. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof. “

In the teachings of Christ those that formulate religious schemes based in lies, hatred, and murder do not know God. Those that assume to preach one god – but do not adhere to the God made known in Christ are deceivers and murderers. The religious zealots taught that Christ blasphemed and so had him crucified. Merely teaching there is one God but not teaching the true nature of God as Christ demonstrated, John 10: 30, and John 17 is demonic.

John 15: 12 “This is my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no man more than this: that a man lay down his life for his friends.
James 2: 19 “So you believe that God is one; you do well: the demons also believe, and shudder. 20 But know this, O vain man, that faith apart from works is barren? “

The only place where the use of “three are one” is in the witness that the body and blood of Christ [his death and sacrifice] agree with the spirit of God that it is effective to forgive sin John 5: 7.

James 2: 1 I exhort therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings, be made for all men; 2 for kings and all that are in high place; that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and gravity. 3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4 who would have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ
Jesus, 6 who gave himself a ransom for all"