Great Construction
The Birth Control Issue as Seen from
the Viewpoint of Religion
The topic of birth control is widely discussed in Japan these days. The cause of this discussion is of course the problem of fitting a population of eight hundred million persons on four small islands, for which it is thought something must be done. When considering birth control, those of us involved with religion, however, find it quite troubling that contemporary intellectuals see the issues only in materialistic terms and do not step outside those bounds. Let me explain.
We should give thought as to why human beings are born into this world. The two billion individuals who compose the world we live in were not born because each of them wanted to be born. While still unconscious of the fact, an egg is impregnated in the abdomen of the female and unconsciously it develops and is born. The infant grows into an adult and takes up one of the avenues of endeavor of which human society consists. During the process of growth, in addition to individual proclivities, differences in intelligence, characteristics, and levels of ability naturally develop and the individual comes to engage in a profession for which it feels an affinity and which meets the needs of society.
From primitive ages, society has continued to develop in this way to the flourishing times we have today. Look at the various fields of endeavor. Whether they become famous politicians, Diet members, educators, artists, industrialists, government officials, technicians, or laborers, equally distributed among the population each individual is equipped with the particular qualities it needs. Truly wondrous too is that this process has occurred universally in all ages without prejudice in any direction. Those with superior ability are truly few and, as to form a pyramid, the number of those who need to do more general work increases in proportion to the nature of the work. If we compare this situation to plants, the great number of plants like grasses and weeds gradually decreases in number as the quality of plant increases. Of trees such as cedar and oak, there is large production of those varieties for which there is a great demand, and the number of higher quality types of trees is lower. With metals as well, the amount of precious metals produced such as gold is small and the demand, greater, for general metals such as iron, lead, and copper.
What is most astonishing is that in every period the number of males and females is nearly equal. What can be discovered when we dispassionately observe these various natural phenomena? One person will say it is truth. Another person may say it is nature. The philosopher will probably use the expression cosmic will. But these are merely explanations for a simple phenomenon, and we human beings will not be satisfied unless we clarify the mystery that lurks within. The mystery of God’s providence I will explain below.
The planet earth on which the human race lives has a center and at that center is the presider, the one who controls. The person who directs all on this planet is the Supreme God, an absolute being also known as Lord of Heaven and also as Jehovah. Cosmic will is the will of the Supreme God. Under the will of the Supreme God, human society has continued to develop limitlessly, and as to the future, what kind of virtuous, beautiful society will develop cannot be imagined, but the future can be ascertained to an extent. When we compare the process of development from primitive times thousands of years ago to the culture of the present, the dazzling degree of progress does give us a hint.
When we judge the situation based on the facts described above and what can deduced from those facts, it can be said that humanity as well as everything in creation comes about and develops under the intention of the Supreme God. The birth and death of human beings as well is none other than the intention of the Supreme God. Thus, when a certain number of human beings are born in a certain area, there should be no reason for there to exist a deficiency of the foodstuffs needed to support that number. Of course, starvation and other calamities, which are too horrible for words, do occur. No matter how much the population may increase, the land on which that population resides has the ability to produce enough foodstuffs to support that population. If there should be a situation that brings about a deficiency, it is because there are errors in the means of production, and the only problem is that human beings do not discern those errors. If we take the average yearly consumption of rice for one human being, whether young or old, female or male, to be one koku, a harvest of 80.2 million koku should be enough for a population of 80.2 million persons. Members of society do not perceive this important fundamental, so the reverse logic of trying to restrict the birth of infants is adopted instead. The proponents of these measures depart from the way and become great criminals in the eyes of God. It is truly terrifying. Theories and plans that would control the number of births are nothing more than the tomfoolery of materialistic atheists.
A lack of foodstuffs for the entire population comes about as a result of errors in farming techniques, so if the method of nonfertilizer cultivation that I advocate is adopted, foodstuffs deficiency will be no problem. Blind to this, farmers continue to grow crops using chemical fertilizers and as a result, the soil of Japan nowadays is considerably degraded. If my method of nonfertilizer cultivation was adopted, harvests could easily be increased by thirty to fifty percent. The harvest this year was 60.3 million koku, so an increase of thirty percent would amount to 80.9 koku. An increase of fifty percent would be 90.45 million koku. The problem of foodstuffs deficiency can be solved simply. In addition, there would be no need to increase of amount of area under cultivation, because, with the adoption of nonfertilizing agricultural techniques, the amount of grain of rice on each stalk increases. An interesting fact is that several thousand years ago, one rice stalk contained only several score of grain, but as the population has gradually increased, so has the production on each stalk, to the average of today of about 150 to 300 grains, and last year the record was broken by a farmer in Shiga who produced a stalk of rice with 400 and several score grains. With changes in agricultural cultivation techniques it is possible to double present production. I heard from an old farmer that the number of rice grains per stalk was less during the two decades from the end of the feudal period to the beginning of the modern era in the mid-nineteenth century, so there is no room for doubt that God will provide enough foodstuffs for the population.
Looking at the issue of birth control from a different aspect, it is said that tuberculosis patients and others with weak constitutions who get pregnant should have abortions induced because birth would be too dangerous for them. Inducing an abortion returns to nothing the condition in which the female has been blessed with pregnancy. According to my interpretation, a female becomes pregnant because she is able to safely give birth and raise a child. If she did not have enough energy to do so, she would be unable to get pregnant in the first place. Such is my position against abortion, and, to tell the truth, in my experience with several scores of patients, I have not had one failure. God would not clumsily create human beings who would get pregnant even though they did not have the energy to give birth. The Creator is not the shallow, slow-witted being that human beings seem to imagine.
Thus, we declare here that we are against efforts to limit the birthrate.
Hikari, Issue 7, April 30, 1949
translated by cynndd
* * *