Ninety percent of humanity needs to die, claimed leading conservation biologist, according to a report by Forrest Mims in The Citizen Scientist, 31 March 2006. Eric Pianka, an expert in lizards and desert environments, claims that the world is drastically over populated by human beings, and would be better off if 90 percent of the current human population died from an epidemic of a killer virus, such as Ebola. Pianka made these claims in a speech to the Texas Academy of Science where he condemned anthropocentrism – the idea that human beings have a special place in the Universe and are intrinsically different from other living organisms. He told a story about how a neighbour asked him what good are the lizards that he studies. Pianka answered, “What good are you?” He then rammed home his point with the claim, “We are no better than bacteria.”
The speech was given during 109th meeting of the Texas Academy of Science at Lamar University in Beaumont on 3-5 March 2006. At that same meeting the Texas Academy of Science named Pianka as the 2006 Distinguished Texas Scientist.
Editorial Comment: Pianka is one of a rare breed – a consistent evolutionist. If human beings only came into being by chance random or naturalistic processes, then they are not intrinsically different to bacteria or lizards, and have no more value than any other life form that got here by the same processes. If “survival of the fittest” is the basis of living on this planet then no-one can complain when they are selected against by a deadly virus, or a Hitler or Pol Pot, leaving only those who are tough enough to survive. Those who want human beings to be protected by health care, social welfare and laws against murder and violence, must understand that the only basis for protecting human lives is that human beings are special creations made in the image of God. See Genesis 9: 1-6. (Ref. genocide, humanity, pandemic)
Evidence News 9 August 2006