Dialogo 4.2: Overpopulation and Religion’s involvement

Journal of the Dialogue between Science and Theology

DIA LOGO Volume 4 - Issue 2 - May 2018

Edited by Cosmin Tudor Ciocan

OverPopulation and

Religion’s Involvement

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DIALOGO Proceedings of the annual Conferences on the Dialogue between Science and Theology

Journal of RCDST (Research Center on the Dialogue between Science & Theology), Ovidius University of Constanta, Romania

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DIALOGO CONF 2018 ORI volume 4 - issue 2:

OVERPOPULATION AND RELIGION’S INVOLVEMENT

Organized by the RCDST - Romania in collaboration with other Institutions from Slovakia - Pakistan - Switzerland - Poland India - Egypt - Uganda - Jordan - Turkey Argentina - USA - Canada - Germany held on May 19 - 26, 2018 venue online:

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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this volume do not necessarily represent those of the Dialogo Organizers, and are attributable only to the authors of the papers as according to their declaration of copyright transfer.

Publication Series: Description: ISSN (CD-ROM): ISSN (ONLINE): ISSN (PRINT): ISSN-L: Editors:

DIALOGO (Proceedings of the Conferences on the Dialogue between Science and Theology) 2392 – 9928 2393 – 1744 2457 – 9297 2392 – 9928 Fr. lecturer Cosmin Tudor CIOCAN, Ph.D. (Romania) - In-Chief - and Ing. Stefan BADURA, Ph.D. (Slovak Republic)

Series Publisher: RCDST (Research Center on the Dialogue between Science & Theology), from Ovidius Univesity of Constanta. Romania Volume 4, Issue 2 Title: OVERPOPULATION AND RELIGION’S INVOLVEMENT subtitle: DOI: ISBN: Published by: (DOI issuer) Pages: Printed on: Publishing date:

DIALOGO-CONF 2018 ORI 10.18638/dialogo.2018.4.2 978-80-554-1466-9 EDIS - Publishing Institution of the University of Zilina Univerzitna 1, 01026 Zilina - Slovak Republic 145 100 copies 2018, June 20

This is a the volume of the Proceedings of the conference “Dialogo” held in May 19-26, 2018. *All published papers underwent blind peer review. *All published papers are in English language only. Each paper was assigned to 3 reviewers and went through two-level approval process. * The ideas and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not nec-

Note on the issue:

essarily represent the views of RCDST. Authors only hold responsability over their papers and content.

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International Scientific Committee, Reviewers and Contributers of Dialogo Journal Christoph STUECKELBERGER Globethics.net President and Founder; Prof. PhD. (Switzerland)

Ahmed KYEYUNE Islamic University in Uganda

Maria Isabel Maldonado GARCIA Directorate External Linkages/Institute of Language University of the Punjab; Head of Spanish Dpt. / Assistant Professor (Pakistan)

Ahmed USMAN University of the Punjab (Pakistan)

Filip NALASKOWSKI

Mihai Valentin VLADIMIRESCU Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of Craiova; Professor PhD. (Romania)

Faculty of Educational Sciences - Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun; Dr. (Poland)

Mohammad Ayaz AHMAD University of Tabuk; Assistant Professor PhD (Saudi Arabia)

Lucian TURCESCU Department of Theological Studies - Concordia University; Professor and Chair (Canada)

IPS Teodosie PETRESCU Archbichop of Tomis district; Faculty of Orthodox Theology; “Ovidius” University of Constanta; Prof.

PhD. (Romania)

Francesco FIORENTINO Dipartimento di Filosofia, Letteratura e Scienze Sociali; Universita degli Studi di Bari «Aldo Moro»; Researcher in Storia della Filosofia (Italy)

Edward Ioan MUNTEAN Faculty of Food Sciences and Technology - University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Cluj–Napoca; Assoc. Professor PhD. (Romania)

Dagna DEJNA NCU Faculty of Educational Sciences (Poland)

Altaf QADIR University of Peshawar (Pakistan)

Panagiotis STEFANIDES Emeritus Honoured Member of the Technical Chamber of Greece HELLENIC AEROSPACE IND. S.A. - Lead engineer; MSc Eur Ing (Greece)

Eugenia Simona ANTOFI “Dunarea de Jos” University (Romania)

Wade Clark ROOF J.F. Rowny Professor of Religion and Society; Emeritus and Research Professor Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion, and Public Life; Director Department of Religious Studies - University of California at Santa Barbara (United States of America) Cristiana OPREA European Physical Society; member Joint Institute for Nuclear Research - Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics; Scientific Project Leader (Russia) Gheorghe ISTODOR Faculty of Orthodox Theology - “Ovidius” University of Constanta; Prof.

PhD. (Romania) Nasili VAKA’UTA Trinity Methodist Theological College University of Auckland; Ranston Lecturer PhD. (New Zealand)

D. Liqaa RAFFEE Jordan University of Science and Technology (Jordan) George ENACHE Faculty of History, Philosophy and Theology „Dunarea de Jos” University of Galati; Associate professor PhD. (Romania) Ahed Jumah Mahmoud AL-KHATIB Faculty of Medicine - Department of Neuroscience University of Science and Technology; Researcher PhD (Jordan) Ioan-Gheorghe ROTARU ‘Timotheus’ Brethren Theological Institute of Bucharest (Romania) Akhtar Hussain SANDHU Department of History, University of the Punjab; Associate professor PhD. (Pakistan) Richard WOESLER European University press, PhD. (Germany)

Dilshad MAHABBAT University of Gujrat (Pakistan) Adrian NICULCEA Faculty of Orthodox Theology, “Ovidius” University of Constanta; Prof.

PhD. (Romania) Tarnue Marwolo BONGOLEE Hope for the Future; Executive Director (Liberia)

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Coli NDZABANDZABA Rhodes University (South Africa)

Riffat MUNAWAR University of the Punjab; Dr. PhD. (Pakistan) Hassan IMAM Aligarh University, PhD. (India) Ioan G. POP Emanuel University of Oradea; PhD. (Romania) Farzana BALOCH University of Sindh Associate professor PhD. (Pakistan)

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International Scientific Committee, Reviewers and Contributers Petru BORDEI Faculty of Medicine - “Ovidius” University of Constanta; Prof. PhD. (Romania) Khalil AHMAD University of the Punjab; Prof. PhD. (Pakistan)

Fouzia SALEEM University of the Punjab, Dr. PhD. (Pakistan)

Maciej LASKOWSKI Politechnika Lubelska; Prof. PhD. (Poland)

Mihai CIUREA University of Craiova, PhD. (Romania)

Muhammad HAFEEZ University of the Punjab; Prof. PhD. (Pakistan)

Mohammad Ayaz Ahmad University of Tabuk, Assistant Professor PhD. (Saudi Arabia)

Muhammad Shahid HABIB International Islamic University; Lecturer Ph.D. (Pakistan)

Mirosaw Zientarski Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toru, PhD. (Poland)

Muhammad Zakria ZAKAR University of the Punjab; Prof. PhD. (Pakistan)

Manisha MATHUR G.N.Khalsa College; University of Mumbai; Assistant Professor (India)

R S Ajin GeoVin Solutions Pvt. Ltd.; PhD. (India)

Pratibha GRAMANN Saybrook University of San Francisco, California (United States of America)

Mustfeez Ahmad ALVI Lahore Leads University; Prof. PhD. (Pakistan)

Adrian GOREA Concordia University, Montreal (Canada)

Radu NICULESCU Ovidius University of Constanta; Assist.prof. PhD. (Romania)

Richard Alan MILLER

Navy Intel (Seal Corp. and then MRU); Dr. in Alternative Agriculture, Physics, and Metaphysics (United States of America)

Fermin De La FUENTE-CALVO De La Fuente Consulting (Corporative Intelligence) B.Sc. Physics and Professor PhD. (United States of America)

Maria CIOCAN “Mircea cel Batran” Naval Academy; teacher PhD. (Romania)

Kelli COLEMAN MOORE University of California at Santa Barbara (United States of America) Osman Murat DENIZ Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart Üniversitesi; Associate Professor PhD. (Turkey) Daniel MUNTEANU The International Journal of Orthodox Theology (Canada) Dragos HUTULEAC Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava; Assistant Lecturer, PhD candidate (Romania) Shiva KHALILI Faculty of psychology and education - Tehran University; Associate Professor PhD. (Iran) Mihai HIMCINSKI Faculty of Orthodox Theology - „1 December 1918” University of Alba Iulia; Prof. PhD. (Romania) Richard Willem GIJSBERS The Institute for the Study of Christianity in an Age of Science and Technology - ISCAST (Australia) Flavius Cristian MARCAU Constantin Brancusi” University of Targu Jiu; Phd. Candidate (Romania)

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Stanley KRIPPNER Association for Humanistic Psychology, the Parapsychological Association; President; Prof. PhD. (United States of America)

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Sorin Gabriel ANTON Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi; PhD. (Romania) Sultan MUBARIZ University of Gujrat; PhD. (Pakistan) Gheorghe PETRARU Faculty of Orthodox Theology, Iasi; Prof. PhD. (Romania) Rania Ahmed Abd El-Wahab Mohamed Plant Protection Research Institute; PhD. (Egypt) Rubeena ZAKAR University of the Punjab; Prof. PhD. (Pakistan) Mihai GIRTU The Research Center on the Dialogue between Science & Theology (RCDST); President Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering - “Ovidius” University of Constanta; Prof. PhD. (Romania) Cosmin Tudor CIOCAN The Research Center on the Dialogue between Science & Theology (RCDST); Executive Director Faculty of Orthodox Theology - “Ovidius” University of Constanta; Lecturer PhD. (Romania)

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International Scientific Committee, Reviewers and Contributers of Dialogo Journal Mihaela RUS “Ovidius” University of Constanta; Professor PhD. (Romania) Sónia MORGADO Instituto Superior de Ciências Policiais e Segurança Interna, (ISCPSI); Aux. Prof., PhD (Portugal)

Mahesh Man Shrestha International Network on Participatory Irrigation Management (INPIM); Lecturer PhD. (Nepal) Muhammad Shahzad Aslam Universiti Malaysia Perlis; Assistant Professor PhD (Pakistan) Musferah Mehfooz COMSATS Institute of Information Technology; Assistant Professor PhD (Pakistan) Muhammad Sarfraz Kuwait University; Professor and V. Dean of Research, PhD (Kuwait)

Jean FIRICA

University of Craiova; Assoc. Professor PhD. (Romania) Ahmed ASHFAQ Assistant Professor PhD (Saudi Arabia) Shoaib Ahmad SIDDIQI Faculty of Biological Sciences, Lahore Garrison University; Assistant Professor PhD (Pakistan) Rehman ATAUR

Lahore Garrison University; Senior Lecturer PhD. (Pakistan) Kuang-ming Wu

Yale University Divinity School; Senior Lecturer PhD. (Pakistan) Nursabah SARIKAVAKLI “Ovidius” University of Constanta; Professor PhD. (Turkey) Laurentiu-Dan MILICI “Stefan cel Mare” University of Suceava; Professor PhD. (Romania) Michael STEVENS Illinois State University; Professor PhD. (United States) Emad Al-Janabi “Al-Mussaib” Technical College; Asist. Prof. Dr. (Iraq) Sugiarto TEGUH Budi luhur and AAJ Jayabaya; Lecturer PhD. (Indonesia)

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DIALOGO

4:2 (2018)

CONFERENCES & JOURNAL

Proceedings of the Conferences on the Dialogue between Philosophy and Theology May 19-26, 2018

Organizing Committee Cosmin Tudor CIOCAN - SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMME OFFICER RCDST Executive Director and Founder; Lect. ThD. Faculty of Orthodox Theology, Ovidius University of Constanta (Romania) Mihai GIRTU RCDST President and Founder; Professor PhD. Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering , Ovidius University of Constanta (Romania)

RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL SESSION Osman Murat DENIZ Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart Üniversitesi; Associate Professor PhD. (Turkey) Bruno MARCHAL

Université Libre de Bruxelles; Prof . PhD. (Belgium) Maria Isabel MALDONADO GARCIA University of the Punjab; Assist. Prof., PhD (Pakistan)

Stefan BADURA - RESPONSIBLE FOR I.T. Publishing Society of Zilina; Ing. PhD. (Slovakia)

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Welcome Address

INTRODUCTION Dear Reader, it is our pleasure to introduce you this Proceedings. This book contains all the accepted papers from the conference, which is described below in more details. We hope that all these published papers contribute to the academic society and provide interesting information for researchers world wide.

I. Conference details: »»

Conference full name: OVERPOPULATION AND RELIGION’S INVOLVEMENT

»»

Conference short name: DialogoConf 2018 ORI

»»

Conference edition: 7th

»»

Conference dates: May 19-26, 2018

»»

Conference web page: www.dialogo-conf.com

»»

Conference online archive: www.dialogo-conf.com/archive

II. Conference paper approval process:

Each registered paper was evaluated in double tier approval process.

1. Scientific Committee evaluation (in average 2 reviews were prepared per paper).

2. Conference Editorial Board.

Only papers recommended by these committees were accepted for online presentation at the conference and for publication in this conference book.

III. Conference presentation:

1. General presentation As the global population continues to increase at an alarming rate, the world, as a whole, now faces the issue of overpopulation. If the world’s natural resource consumption and environmental pollution/destruction continue at their current pace, then the earth will eventually no longer be able to sustain all of its inhabitants. Social change is the only way to prevent this. How can we do this and who will support eventual social change’s requirements? Would religion/religious devotees sustain such changes or, on the contrary, will they resist them? On the other hand, the world’s religious traditions possess particular motivational qualities with respect to people’s worldviews and behaviors. All of the world’s religious traditions are responding, in a way or another, to overpopulation issue. Traditions in isolation, however, do not address the complexities of the current ecological crisis.

Overpopulation requires a broader approach that unites the respective responses, which

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Welcome Address

requires an honest, open dialogue, for a benefit of a higher interest than one’s.

Further, the actual rate of increase has grown - to 80 million people annually in 1996 compared to 70 million in 1966. Yet little if any planning goes on in the underdeveloped countries where most of each year’s 80 million new children are born. What are the advantages and the disadvantages of the population’s growth? Can we even talk about such advantages “part” in the overpopulation? Or, should we hold it responsible for all the plagues in the world? Can we see something good in this?

2. Religion’s Response to Overpopulation Issue: Many religious leaders and denominations insist that population growth is one of the main culprits in the economic and environmental crisis. They emphasize that our planet is dying slowly, killed by our increasing hands.

The religious involvement in this issue is so contradictious and also a paradoxical hypocrisy.

On the one hand, most of the religious dogma fight against abortion, child abandonment, and infanticide. The reason is very simple and understandable: life is God’s gift exclusively and His privilege for ending it; no one else can dispose of his or another’s life in any way.

On the other hand, the overwhelming majority of religious denominations disallows any form of other, less violent or life-taking methods, as contraception, birth control or even family planning, because “ensoulment occurred at conception and thus we have to forbid all abortions” (Pope Pius IX). Here the discussions are endless on both sides, anti-abortionists and feminists, both with sustainable arguments. When and where and to what extent will religious understanding and will of readjustment be?

Therefore, considering all these problems raised by Overpopulation and its encounter with the religious phenomenon, you can write about any issue tangential on this topic, either Pro or Con, issues raised by Overpopulation, issues that lead to it, issues raised by religion(s) on this particular topic, and so forth. We hope that this topic brought even more interesting papers into the pro-con debate in Dialogo 2018 Conference!

3. Pros and Cons Issues (under consideration: Advantages: Industrial, Medical, and Agricultural Innovation. Many of the world’s remarkable innovations over the past 300 years are attributable to population growth: More great minds lead to more innovations.

More people around the world are living longer lives than even a century earlier thanks to modern medical achievements. And while agricultural resources are a very real concern as the world’s population grows, the world’s increase in population is responsible for a greater consciousness of the need for additional resources as well as the innovations to produce food at the pace of population growth. Advantages: Economic Growth. Many of the world’s remarkable innovations over the past 300 years are attributable to population growth: More great minds lead to more innovations. Assembly-line manufacturing itself is an adaptation to an increasing population and the need for greater and faster output.

More people around the world are living longer lives than even a century earlier thanks to modern medical achievements. And while agricultural resources are a very real concern as the world’s population grows, the world’s increase in population is responsible for a greater consciousness of the need for additional resources as well as the innovations to doi: 10.18638/dialogo.2018.4.2

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Welcome Address

produce food at the pace of population growth. Disadvantage: Food Shortage. Unchecked population growth without equal agricultural advancement to meet it leads to food shortages. Fortunately, agricultural supply worldwide currently exceeds the demand of the world population. While food shortage is a valid concern of population growth, current research suggests the world population is growing at an increasingly slower rate and several developed nations are experiencing negative population growth. Slowing population growth combined with modern agriculture make it difficult to estimate a point when the population’s demand for food outweighs the supply. Food distribution does remain a concern in some areas of the world. Disadvantage: Property Shortage Although the world population is a long way from being large enough to occupy all of the habitable land on earth, unchecked population growth can inspire overcrowding and civil unrest. Areas with high populations experience this now. In the developed world, however, population growth is waning, leaving fewer risks of property shortages. Disadvantage: Aging Dependency The world’s growing population includes a large and dependent aging segment. In the United States, the aging population as defined by people over the age of 65 is expected to comprise almost 20 percent of the population by 2030 -- an 80 percent increase from 2000. Changes in population distribution such as this one can make a society assess how it cares for certain populations and how it allocates resources for such care).

Sincere thanks for: •

Scientific Committee for their volunteer work during reviewing.

•

Conference partners for promotional work and their contribution.

•

Editorial Board for enormous workload and patience.

Be welcomed to enjoy this accomplishment!

See you again for the DIALOGO 2018 November exciting event! your host, lect. Ciocan Tudor Cosmin, PhD Executive Director of The Research Center on the Dialogue between Science & Theology (RCDST) „Ovidius” University Constanța / Romania Scientific Programme Officer of DIALOGO international conferences E-mail: office(at)dialogo-conf.com

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Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people.

Eleanor Rosevelt

DIALOGO

4.2 (2018)

doi: 10.18638/dialogo.2018.4.2

CONFERENCES & JOURNAL

t h e Di a l ogue b et ween Sci en c e a n d Th eol ogy

4 6 7 9 12 13 17

Database List Description Conference Sponsors and Parteners International Scientific Committee, Reviewers and Contributers Organizing Committee Preface by Ciocan Tudor Cosmin Table of Content

64 74

Obesity and Fast-Food Docu Any Axelerad; docu axelerad daniel, cosmin ciocan

84 Smoking and the Cerebrovascular Disease

Docu Any Axelerad; docu axelerad daniel; Mirela Damian; Antoanela Oltean

session 2 - religion and overpopulation

29 Overpopulation and Consequences of Environmental Pollution from Plastics Wastes

Mohammad Ayaz Ahmad; Svitlana Sotnik; Vyacheslav Lyashenko

35 The Aggressiveness - Factor involved in the Deviant

95 Aspects of Immortality in Terms of Conditionalism Cosmin Tudor Ciocan

Behavior at Minors

Mihaela Luminita Sandu; Kristine Viorica Ispas

Adrian Vasile

Nicolae Popescu

Docu Any Axelerad; docu axelerad daniel; negrea valentin

Ludiro Madu; Teguh Sugiarto

People

Marinela Carmen Grigore

The Rich Man’s Worry about Tomorrow

ASEAN’s Centrality in Managing Conflict of Claims in the South China Sea

43 The Phenomenon of Overpopulation within the Jewish

The Psychosocial Integration of Seropositive Persons

79 Smoking and the Cerebrovascular Disease

session 1 - overpopulation and its effects

21

57

Overpopulation between Divine Providence and Human 105 Anguish Gheorghe Istodor

112 Reflection on the basic presuppositions of a

democratic renewal in the Muslim world in a context of globalization

The influence of subliminal messages on decision-

51 making capacity

Traore Kassoum; Memon FOFANA

Mariana Floricica Calin

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Tabel of Content

DIALOGO

4.2 (2018) 2018 May, 19 - 26 www.dialogo-conf.com The Virtual International Conference on CONFERENCES & JOURNAL t h e D i al o gue be t we e n Sc i enc e and Theology

143

116 Wise religious education, as a solution for overpopulation crisis

Guidelines for the Authors

Dmitri Delistoian; Mihael Chircor; Radoiu Viorel-Bogdan

125 “Be fruitful and increase in number…!” – An Orthodox perspective on overpopulation Stelian Manolache

Volunteers, Priests and Community Work 134 in Overpopulated New York City. (Literary Representations of Pre- and Post- 9/11 NYC) Nicoleta Stanca

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Tabel of Content

Section 1

OverPopulation AND ITS EFFECTS

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This paper was presented in the

The Virtual International Conference on the Dialogue between Science and Theology. (DIALOGO-CONF 2018 ORI)

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held online, on the Journal’s website, from MAY 19 - 26, 2018

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ASEAN’s Centrality in Managing Conflict of Claims in the South China Sea 1. Ludiro Madu, PhD

2. Teguh Sugiarto, PhD

Lecture at UPN Veteran Departemen Internasional Relation.

Universitas Pembangunan ‘Nasional’ Veteran, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Lecture accounting at Universitas Budi Luhur, Jakarta, indonesia

3. Reza Suriansha, PhD

4. Sugiyanto, PhD

Lecture at UniSadhuGuna Business School Wisma Subud, Jalan Rumah Sakit Fatmawati No.52, RT.7/ RW.3, Cilandak, RT.7/RW.3, Kota Jakarta Selatan, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta 12430, Indonesia

Lecture at Dept. Acc. Universitas Pamulang Tangerang, Banten, Indonesia

5. Achmadi, PhD

Lecture management STIE Tunas Nusantara and AAJ Jayabay, Jakarta, Indonesia

ARTICLE INFO

ABSTRACT

Article history: Received 18 February 2018 Received in revised form 11 May Accepted May 15 2018 Available online 20 June 2018 doi: 10.18638/dialogo.2018.4.2.1

ASEAN’s centrality has been the most strategic position for managing potential conflicts and building regional security order in the South China Sea. ASEAN’s centrality is of importance for managing regional major powers, such as the United States and China, in building regional security architecture. Territorial disputes in the South China Sea have escalated tensions and possible military confrontation between rival claimant states, particularly between China and Vietnam, and China and the Philippines. Other ASEAN’s member states involved in the dispute are Brunei and Malaysia. This paper seeks to analyze how ASEAN has sought to manage its relationship towards the US and China as a strategic path in resolving the South China Sea dispute. This paper proposes soft balancing strategy which involves various efforts of persuading the US to act as counterweights to China’s influence in the region. This soft balancing strategy is appropriate with several issues that ASEAN should deal with managing potential conflicts in South China Sea.

Keywords: ASEAN; soft balancing strategy; US; China; South China Sea; regional security;

© 2014 RCDST. All rights reserved.

Session 1. OverPopulation and its effects

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CONFERENCES & JOURNAL on th e D ial o gu e b e t we e n S ci e n c e a nd T heology

I. INTRODUCTION

Since its establishment in 1967, Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been challenged to determine its strategic stance towards other countries, especially those of major powers. Recently, one of the strategic stances that ASEAN has had to define in order to manage potential conflicts and to build regional security order in the region is increasing its centrality towards continuous efforts of resolving the conflict of claims in the South China Sea [1]. In general, ASEAN centrality can be understood as a mechanism of involving external powers ---including China and the United States—through various regional initiatives for the sake of developing confidence-building measures or CBM [2]. The further development shows the widening spectrum of responsibilities that ASEAN has had to handle. It ranges from identifying the natures of both traditional and non-traditional security threats. ASEAN has also had to design various regional strategies for overcoming potential strategic issues in future. This central position has made ASEAN always put the issues of South China Sea disputes into its annual summits. Posing with those regional severe challenges, ASEAN has developed its centrality by defining strategies of managing significant powers, such as the United States and China, in the issue of the South China Sea dispute [3].

Recent territorial disputes in the South China Sea have directly escalated tensions and possible military confrontation between rival claimant states, particularly between China-Vietnam and China-the Philippines.

Other ASEAN’s member states also involve in the dispute are Brunei and Malaysia.

These confrontations lead to several issues including: first, the rise of China’s military in emphasizing its sovereignty through its 9-dashed lines map, especially in areas close to the coastlines of other littoral states.

Session 1. OverPopulation and its effects

Second, dead-lock meetings between China and ASEAN for finding further solutions on the on-going conflicts. Both sides disagreed in the application of Code of Conduct (CoC) which was fundamentally originated from China’s preference for negotiation in bilateral to international level [4]. Third, uncertainty over bilateral relations between the US and China, especially their presence in Asia, with particular reference to the conflict in the South China Sea.1 Level of the uncertainty gets higher when ASEAN members’ states encountered the change of the US global policy under President Donald Trump.

Further potential change of the US policy has driven ASEAN to redefine their policy toward the US, particularly its involvement in building regional architecture in Asia.

This paper analyzes how ASEAN seeks to manage its relationship towards the US and China as a strategic path in resolving the South China Sea dispute? Three main issues that ASEAN has to deal with, i.e.: maintaining its centrality as the only regional organization in building regional security architecture, managing major powers e.g. the US and China in the effort of building regional independence without losing benefits from both major market powers, and, the last, is using both two former issues as the foundation in managing the South China Sea dispute. Implementing soft balancing strategy, this paper asserts that ASEAN’s centrality in managing potential conflicts in the South China Sea has demanded ASEAN to actively involve both the US and China in various ASEAN-initiated diplomatic meetings.

1 This paper focuses on the US strategic policy under President Barrack Ob. Although the rise of the newly elected President Donald Trump resulted in new global strategy of the US in Asia, many believed that the US would maintain its presence in Asia, particularly in balancing China’s power in the South China Sea.

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II. SOFT BALANCING STRATEGY

ASEAN has to recalibrate its strategy in dealing with new challenges in the postCold War. As the only regional organization in Southeast Asia, ASEAN has optimistically been coined for its capability of building regional peace and stability. Nevertheless, ASEAN has also transformed and redefines its capacity in responding the dynamics of local challenges. Rizal Sukma pointed out that this transformation is mostly driven by the great powers and is “characterized by four main trends: the rise of China, the continued primacy of the US, the revitalization of Japan’s security role, and the arrival of India as a potential major actor” [5]. Recent development shows tendency that China’s growing influence in Southeast Asia has been taking place at the expense of American influence in the region.

Most of ASEAN’s members tend to maintain their positive relations with all the major powers with direct consequence of maintaining regional status quo. Egberink and Putten portrayed that: “ASEAN countries themselves have much depending on fostering good relations with both these major powers, but also on good relations between the US and China. ASEAN serves as the stage for a game for influence in the region. Southeast Asia’s particular geographical position, the long-standing involvement of both US and China in the sub-region, and ASEAN’s central role in regional initiatives have worked as pull-factors to attract the US and China in contending for influence” [6].

When Indonesia led ASEAN in 2011, ASEAN tried hard to revive its centrality by upholding the Declaration of Conduct (DoC) of Parties in the South China Sea toward something less aspirational and more enforceable [7]. A more constructive meeting between China and ASEAN was held in Kunming on January 2011 from which

ASEAN increased its credibility by shifting its four claimant members ---Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam--- from being part of the problem to become part of the solution.

Although various diplomatic channels have been taken, ASEAN has seemingly been forced to wait for a longer time to solve the conflict of claims in the South China Sea. One of the strategies for responding to the uncertainties is the use of hedging strategy. This strategy would give the regional organization such a capacity to take a neutral position over potential problems on the conflictual issues in the South China Sea. The hedging strategy would also promote the way ASEAN places its middle position between the US and China in managing South China Sea. Goh defines the strategy of hedging as: “a set of strategies aimed at avoiding (or planning for contingencies in) a situation in which states cannot decide upon more straightforward alternatives such as balancing, bandwagoning, or neutrality.

Instead they cultivate a middle position that forestalls or avoids having to choose one side [or one straightforward policy stance] at the obvious expense of another” [8] Almost all countries of ASEAN have been implementing hedging strategy. Each country pursues ‘hedging’ in various ways, which might be separated or mixed with other strategies, such as the balancing, bandwagoning, or engagement. These various strategies on hedging have resulted in claims that all countries in the region can be seen as pursuing some forms of hedging.

This strategy has also been employed by the US, Japan and India in managing potential threats which China has posted [9]. In this context, Goh gave a concise conception of hedging behavior that “Hedging behavior in Southeast Asia comprises three elements. First is indirect or soft balancing, which mainly involves persuading other major powers, particularly

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the United States, to act as counterweights to Chinese regional influence. Second, hedging entails complex engagement of China at the political, economic, and strategic levels with the hope that Chinese leaders may be persuaded or socialized into conduct that abides by international rules and norms. In this sense, engagement policies may be understood as a constructive hedge against potentially aggressive Chinese domination. The third element is a general policy of enmeshing a number of regional great powers in order to give them a stake in a stable regional order”[8].

Compare to others, ‘soft balancing’ strategy has been prevalent in various literatures on ASEAN and Southeast Asia states’ in the way they build their good relations with great powers. This behavior seeks to maintain the US power in the region against that of China. By maintaining regional presence of the US, regional security is assumed to build its stability through the presence of the US as the regional hegemon and guarantor in Asia [9]. The US serves as a hedge against the rising threats of China.

At the same time, ASEAN also apply the hedging strategy over China [3].

On soft balancing policy, Goh explains that it is: “designed to counter the target state’s ability to constrain the subject state, either through non-specific deterrence or defense strengthening, or through building diplomatic, economic, and political relationship with third states or organizations that can be converted into leverage against the target state when relations with it deteriorate”[10] Under those considerations, ASEAN considers China as the target of its soft balancing policy. On the other hands, ASEAN defines the US as the primary third party that ASEAN is building relations with. The soft balancing strategy also serves as the driver for strengthening the US military presence

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in the region. In a recent development, the US declined to establish a formal military alliance to some countries in the area.

Furthermore, the strategy of soft balancing is interestingly aimed at persuading the US to act as counterweights to China’s regional influence in Asia, specifically in the South China Sea. This strategy directly hedges against any unwanted rising of China’s regional power by managing the presence of the US in the region. Therefore, ASEAN is assumed to have the capability of maintaining its centrality in the region, especially managing potential conflicts in the South China Sea [2].

It means that the soft balancing is seen as a strategy that directly refers to relations with the US. In this context, China is the target of the strategy, the US is merely used as a balancer of ‘first resort’ [8]. Applying this strategy, ASEAN does not need to do any activities which could unnecessarily upset China. ASEAN continued to recognize that the US and China have strategically been competing for influence in the region’ [12].

Rather than approaching the unpredictable China for its central role in Asia, ASEAN has been considered to give a limited opportunity to maintain the US strategic presence by offering places, instead of bases, in the region.

III. US PIVOT AND CHINA’S EMERGING

POWER

The shift of Washington’s pivot from Afghanistan to Asia has been deemed as a strategy of eliminating the increasing exposure of Beijing’s strength in Asia’s regional security. At the same time, the tendency of associating pivot with a mere security issues have been misleading.

The demand of increasing the US military power was prone to blur the importance of economic rationale of the pivot itself. It means that the US pivot in Asia included

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both security and economy issues.

On economic dimension, ASEAN has developed an independent stance between the US and China. ASEAN did not interfere with its members’ decision of joining the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) or other regional economic cooperation. Only Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam were among the 10 ASEAN’s member states that negotiated the TPP in Auckland in December 2012. On the other hands, at its summit in Phnom Penh (November 2012), ASEAN did not oppose Beijing’s initiated regional economic cooperation, ASEAN+3, which necessarily excludes the US. ASEAN also gave green light to launch a 16-member Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The RCEP interestingly augmented the ASEAN+3 grouping and added three more potential restraints on China — Australia, India and New Zealand.

The economic rationale for including these six non-ASEAN states was that they already have FTAs with ASEAN. This development shows that some of ASEAN’s member states individually supported the US-led TPP. Nevertheless, ASEAN has been acting as a single-united regional economic entity that indirectly leads its collective interest in the China-led RCEP.2 However, ASEAN’s centrality on security and economic issues would be determined by its capability of hedging between: “…

Beijing’s strategy of assertion in the South China Sea and … the pressure for inclusion represented by Washington’s pivot toward Southeast Asia” [13]. Supporting its claim to virtually the entire South China Sea, China was forced to take decisive position in July 2010 when the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) was scheduled to meet in Hanoi.

Beijing reportedly contacted all of ASEAN’s member governments and strongly urged 2 The new US administration under President Trump surprisingly withdrew its national interest in the TPP for focusing its more domestic orientation.

them not to broach the subject of the Sea in Hanoi [14]. Beijing’s response to ASEAN’s stance in the issue of the South China Sea has seemed to be consistent in term of its preference to bilateral negotiation.

The South China Sea disputes have been a litmus test of China’s attitude and behavior toward its smaller neighbors. Its recent assertive and aggressive stance and display of military power followed a long period of smooth relations and bilateral as well as multilateral cooperation with Southeast Asian states [15]. In the 2017 meeting, ASEAN Foreign Ministers and China considered the proposed framework for a Code of Conduct (CoC) of Parties in the South China Sea. The draft framework has been agreed by the representatives of ASEAN and China and is likely to be approved by their respective foreign ministers. However, it does not mention several fundamental issues, such as the legal nature of the COC, the area it will apply to, how to settle disputes, and how to ensure compliance that led to major stumbling blocks to further agreement between both parties.

Although potential managing conflicts in the South China Sea is of importance, ASEAN has been aware of its strategic context that could escalate the rivalry between China and the US for dominance in the region. This fundamental security challenge has become increasingly prevalent and demanded the application of ASEAN’s soft balancing strategy. An aggressive China’s navy has eroded the US-led status quo with a divided and increasingly irrelevant ASEAN [16]. The fact that ASEAN’s member states are fragmented in their bilateral relations to China shows additional difficulty that ASEAN has to deal with. More importantly is the way ASEAN directing itself in the competition between the US and China in managing the region, especially in the conflict of the South China Sea.

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IV. ASEAN AND REGIONAL SECURITY IN

SOUTH CHINA SEA

Strategic objectives of ASEAN ---among other things is dealing with security matters and disputes through a regional framework rather than bilaterally or through international forums--- are among the key objectives that will fulfill the vision of ASEAN, including the strategy that ASEAN has to take for solving the South China Sea disputes. One of these objectives is ensuring that ASEAN is continuously and strategically relevant to its members, both in term of regional security and economy. The decisive test of ASEAN’s centrality is undoubtedly its capacity to accommodate the rise of China.

For ASEAN, the presence of China and the US remains important, which consequently provides ASEAN with some potential rooms for maneuver as the way both the US and China tries hard to identify individual stance of ASEAN’s member states into their own camps [3].

Through the diplomatic process, ASEAN needs to sustain the belief among member states that an increase in benefit to one will be a benefit to all. Such thought does matter in the case of finding solution for the claim conflicts in the South China Sea. In practice, this would be difficult to achieve. In the event of a conflict, turbulence in the region or even responses to current proposals, it is likely that members of ASEAN will continue to tend to put their own interests first. Other strategic objectives ASEAN might consider, in the context of building an ASEAN Community, is ensuring the competence of ASEAN as a kind of driver that would in the end be looked for the purpose of solving and containing any future conflicts or outbreaks of political turbulence [17].

In relation to the US position in Asia, Hillary Clinton described that it: (1) opposes to ‘the use or threat of force by any claimant’; (2) favors a collaborative process

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for resolving these disputes in accord with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea; (3) supports the ‘Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea’ (DOC) that China and the ASEAN states co-signed in 2002, encouraging the parties to agree on ‘a full [i.e., binding] code of conduct,’ and offering to ‘facilitate initiatives and confidence building measures’ consistent with the Declaration; and (4) believes that, ‘consistent with customary international law, legitimate claims to maritime space in the South China Sea should be derived solely from legitimate claims to land features’ [18].

By applying Clinton’s four points, China’s behavior can be concluded as using force against Vietnamese fisherman, for example.

Moreover, in support of the DoC, China’s unwillingness to upgrade the Declaration into a binding CoC can be regarded as potential problems for ASEAN. The CoC arranges the importance of ‘regional peace and stability, maritime security, unimpeded commerce, and freedom of navigation’ in keeping with international law and the Law of the Sea — ‘and the peaceful settlement of disputes.’ However, the reference to nonviolence looked as if it had been tacked on, as if the drafters had debated the extent to which the phrase could be read as targeting Beijing [19].

Across the governments of ASEAN, a spectrum of attitudes runs from those most willing to give China the benefit of the doubt to those most doubtful of China’s benefit to them. Emmerson also revealed that, for ASEAN, the US is geopolitical, but China is geographical” [13]. This tendency led to the fact that “the basic approach of ASEAN to dealing with China’s rise has remained the same as it has been since the end of the Cold War: to strengthen ties with China while at the same time encouraging other major powers to become or remain engaged in Southeast Asia, which is hoped to counterbalance Chinese influence” [6]. The

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possible counterbalance for China influence in Asia seems to be the US. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s statement that the US regarded freedom of navigation in the South China Sea as a US ‘national interest’ has been one important determining factor for ASEAN position. On the contrary, China strongly describes the South China Sea - the site of some unresolved territorial claims with Southeast Asian states - as a ‘core national interest’ which has increasingly challenged the US’s naval dominance of the region [3]. As long as the US maintains its presence the region and China keeps its ambition for occupying the South China Sea, ASEAN’s soft balancing strategy seems to be more contextual for implementing its centrality between both major powers.

There is no way that either the US or China can prevent ASEAN or even the claimant states among ASEAN from consulting among themselves on such an important issue. Since the ASEAN Foreign Ministers issued the Manila Declaration on the South China Sea in 1992 (when ASEAN had six, rather than the current ten members), the effects of the South China Sea disputes on regional peace and stability had interestingly been recognized as a matter of collective interest to ASEAN. Although the Philippines toned down the issue of the South China Sea in its leadership at the 2017 ASEAN Summit, ASEAN kept insisting China for considering the DoC and CoC as both sides approved.

This development is consistent to ASEAN’s main goals: “to incorporate China and other rising regional powers into the regional hierarchy beneath the United States, while strengthening the range of regional institutions and buttressing U.S. primacy” [20]. Therefore, ASEAN will be encouraged to take this position to become ‘a manager of regional order’ [21] which actually has been in line with its role of centrality and its soft balancing strategy in managing

potential problems in the region, including the South China Sea disputes.

CONCLUSION Soft balancing strategy involves various efforts of persuading major regional or global powers, for instance, the United States to act as counterweights to increasing China’s regional military and economic influence. The main aim of applying the strategy is to put ASEAN centrality as the rule of the game in managing and solving conflicts in the region, including those of the South China Sea. ASEAN has managed its centrality in its efforts to mediate and manage its up-and-down situations. ASEAN has taken a considerable strategy, i.e., soft balancing. This strategy has enabled this regional organization to move between the US and China at its best advantage, without any attempts of putting both regional power into a dominating position. ASEAN would use one of them with the purpose of balancing others. Therefore, this strategy has resulted in a central position of ASEAN in managing potential conflicts of the South China Sea disputes and promoting regional security architecture.

REFERENCES [1] Thayer, Carlyle A. “ASEAN Unity Restored by Shuttle Diplomacy?” A Background Briefing of Thayer Consultancy. Sydney. (2012).

[2] Laksmana, Evan A. “ASEAN Centrality in the South China Sea”. In Southeast Asian perspectives on US-China competition, Lowy Institute Report. (2017). p. 11.

[3] Beeson, Mark. “Living with Giants: ASEAN and the Evolution of Asian Regionalism”.

TRANS: Trans-Regional and –National Studies of Southeast Asia. Vol. 1. No. 2 (July 2013). pp. 303-322.

[4] Tan, See Seng. “Courting China: Track 2 Diplomacy and the Engagement of the

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People’s Republic”, presented at the ASEAN 40th Anniversary Conference on “Ideas and Institutions: Building an ASEAN Community?”

(Singapore, RSIS: July 31-August 1, 2007).

[5] Sukma, Rizal. “ASEAN and the Major Powers in the New Emerging Regional Order”. In Regional Order in East Asia: ASEAN and Japan Perspectives. J. Tsunekawa (ed.). NIDS Joint Research Series No. 1. (Tokyo, National Institute for Defense Studies: 2007). p. 83.

[6] Egberink, Fenna and Frans-Paul van der Putten.“ASEAN and Strategic Rivalry among the Great Powers in Asia”. Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs Vol. 29, No. 3. (2010). p. 134.

[7] Madu, Ludiro. “Indonesia Dalam KTT ASEAN” [Indonesia in the ASEAN’s Summit].

Kedaulatan Rakyat daily. (15 November 2011).

[8] Goh, Evelyn. Meeting the China Challenge: The U.S. in Southeast Asian Regional Security Strategies. Policy Studies 16. (Washington: East-West Center, 2005). p. viii [9] Cook, Malcolm. “Southeast Asia and the Major Powers: Engagement not entanglement”.

Southeast Asian Affairs. (2014). p. 38.

[10] Goh, Evelyn. ‘Understanding “hedging” in Asia-Pacific security’. PacNet. no. 43. 31 (August 2006).

[12] Brown, J. ‘Jakarta’s Juggling Act: Balancing China and America in the Asia-Pacific’, Foreign Policy Analysis, no. 5. (3 February 2011). p. 11.

[13] Emmerson, Donald K. “China’s ‘frown diplomacy in Southeast Asia”. accessed 21 August 2013. http://www.eastasiaforum. org/2010/ 10/08/chinas-frown-diplomacy-insoutheast-asia/.

[14] ............ “Challenging ASEAN: the American pivot in Southeast Asia”. (13 January 2013). accessed 20 August 2013. http://www. eastasiaforum.org/ 2013/01/13/challengingasean-the-american-pivot-in-southeast-asia/.

[15] Baviera, Aileen S.P. “China-ASEAN Conflict

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and Cooperation in the South China Sea: Managing Power Asymmetry”. (Manila.

National Defense College of the Philippines: 2013) [16] Valencia, Mark J. “The ASEAN Summits and the South China Sea”. (2017). accessed 2 August 2017. https://the diplomat. com/2017/07/theasean-summits-and-the-south-china-sea/ [17] Bandoro, Bantarto. “A good time for ASEAN to strenghten its leadership”, the Jakarta Post daily, June 24, 2004.

[18] Madu, Ludiro. “Peran (Baru) AS”. [New Role of the US]. Kedaulatan Rakyat daily. (6 September 2012).

[19] Sutter, Robert, and Chin-Hao Huang. “China’s Shift to Thoughness on Maritime Claims – One Year Latter”, PacNet #53. (July 17, 2013).

[20] Goh, Evelyn “Great Powers and Hierarchical Order in Southeast Asia: Analyzing Regional Security Strategies”. International Security.

Vol. 32. No. 3 (Winter 2007/08). pp. 113–157.

[21] Sukma, Rizal. “ASEAN And Regional Security”. Policy Paper No. 7. East Asia Study Center (Dhaka, East Asia: 2014).

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Overpopulation and the Consequences of Environmental Pollution from Plastics Wastes 1. Mohammad Ayaz Ahmad, PhD

Physics Department, Faculty of Science, P.O. Box741, University of Tabuk, 71491, Saudi Arabia

2. Svitlana Sotnik, PhD

Department of Computer-Integrated Technologies, Automation and Mechatronics, Kharkiv National University of RadioElectronics, Kharkiv, Nauka Ave, 14, Ukraine

3. Vyacheslav Lyashenko, PhD

Department of Informatics, The Kharkiv National University of RadioElectronics, Kharkiv, Nauka Ave, 14, Ukraine

ARTICLE INFO

ABSTRACT

Article history: Received 11 February 2018 Received in revised form 13 May Accepted May 15 2018 Available online 20 June 2018 doi: 10.18638/dialogo.2018.4.2.2

The paper reviews the main types of plastics affecting pollution, the main types of plastic contamination caused by overpopulation and the principle of rational plastics choice. The conducted researches made it possible to identify the main causes of pollution and suggest ways to prevent them.

Keywords: overpopulation; pollution; plastic; contamination; poisoning; chemicals; Š 2014 RCDST. All rights reserved.

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eISSN: 2393-1744, cdISSN: 2392-9928 printISSN: 2457-9297, ISSN-L 2392-9928 ISBN 978-80-554-1466-9

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I. INTRODUCTION

Plastics are found everywhere: utensils, bags, packaging, toys, furniture, decoration of houses and cars, pots, flowers, machinery and much more [1, 2]. Every year, the consumption of plastic products is growing, so the fleet of injection molding machines (IMM) and the range of plastics are developing successfully [3].

Currently, much attention is also paid to technologies for the production of plastic materials, molding, finishing, processing into composite materials, exploitation, etc.

New technologies can play a decisive role in shaping the future, carry not only thousands of opportunities but thousands of threats.

The processing of plastic materials in human life is also of great importance.

The ecological level of plastic materials associated with their use in the automotive, medical and food industries, construction, etc.

The direct reduction of the natural living beings habitat is pollution.

The modern strategy in solving environmental problems related to land pollution is closely related to overpopulation.

Overpopulation is not balanced by the need to maintain the basic needs of life, such as clean air, water, and food.

The more people, the more it is necessary to produce products for human life.

The volume of plastics production is enormous all over the world, and plastics products that have lost their useful lives are often discarded, which is a threat to the environment.

Therefore, the use issue and further disposal of plastics are particularly relevant.

II. Method

products accumulation from plastics in the environment, adversely affecting human health, wildlife, wildlife habitat [2].

One of the prerequisites is that today special syntheses and produce new plastics (polymers), which significantly expanded the possibilities of construction, production and everyday life.

There are different types of plastic contamination, which, according to Fig. 1 can be characterized as follows: 1. An essential element of the landscape is the water bodies that carry economic, recreational loads, and at the same time, it is difficult to overestimate their importance in maintaining the sustainability of natural ecosystems. Small rivers are an important component of the environment. The quality of water in medium and large rivers largely depends on their condition [4]. The leading cause of water quality deterioration is pollution as a result of the agricultural and industrial use of nature. The leading factor determining the eutrophication intensity is the receipt in the reservoirs of a significant number of “harmful” plastic elements.

One of the marine debris components is the “backgammon” – plastic granules, transported in this form, often using cargo ships, are used to create plastic products [4]. A significant number of backgammon enters the oceans, and it has been estimated that they make up about 10% of the beach coverage around the world. Plastics in the oceans usually decompose during the year, but not completely, and in the process, toxic chemicals such as bisphenol A and polystyrene can get into water from some plastics [5]. Particles of polystyrene and backlashes are the most common types of plastic pollution in the oceans, and in combination with polyethylene films, packages and food containers constitute the majority of oceanic debris [5].

Pollution from plastics – the process of

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Figure 1. Types of pollution from plastics

2. Poisoning of water. Plastics can release harmful chemicals into the soil, which can then seep into groundwater or other nearby water sources [2]. Plastic enters the tap water, which can cause serious damage to the health of those who use water.

3. Air pollution. This occurs as a result of both natural processes, as a result of human activities. And it is the person who plays an increasingly important role in atmospheric pollution [6].

Gases that enter the atmosphere, dust and other substances are dangerous for the human body – they adversely affect the cycles of many components on Earth. Polluting and poisonous substances are transported over long distances, fall with sediments into the soil, surface, and groundwater, into the oceans, poison the environment, adversely affect the production of plant matter. For example, a particular danger in the light of long-term consequences is the massive use of freons as foaming agent’s polyurethane foams (PUR). These fluorine-containing compounds are known to destroy the protective ozone shell in the atmosphere [7].

Examples of PPU products:

steering wheel; cushions and seat backs; armrests; bumpers; dashboard;

block parts.

Plastified polyvinyl chloride is gradually replaced by thermoplastic elastomers based on polyolefins, polyesters, and polyamides.

The same applies to rubber-technical materials, which in many respects have already become obsolete. Very popular plastics ABS and polymer mixtures on their basis during processing into products, especially when the melt is overheated or when technological waste is used, releases toxic compounds into the environment [8].

Phenol-formaldehyde presses, polyester prepregs, still used for the products manufacture of auto tractor electrical equipment and headlight reflectors, are very harmful when processed into products because of the phenolic compounds isolation, formaldehyde, styrene; are difficult to recycle and practically not disposed of after decommissioning [8].

4. Rubbish contamination from plastics.

Most often these are disposable items of packaging or products that are usually always discarded within one year.

Many of the plastic materials, such as polyethylene, are able to withstand the effects of solar radiation and air oxygen in combination with the effects of heat and moisture under natural conditions for decades without significant chemical degradation. Others, such as polypropylene, are destroyed. It is easy to see by the deterioration of the film mechanical strength, which after cracks in the air during the summer is cracked.

Nevertheless, fragments of products from this polymer also persist in the environment and contaminate it for many years.

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Rubbish from plastics (Figure 2) [9]:

Types of pollution from plastics are presented in Table 1.

1. PET, PETE – bottles of drinks, sometimes packaging from machinery, products.

This is the most frequently processed plastic, so they accept and assemble it almost everywhere.

2. PEHD, HDPE, PE-HD, HD-PE – can be hard and in the form of a film.

Bottles from drinks and household chemicals, bags, film, caps from plastic bottles, canisters, basins.

3. PELD, LDPE, PE-LD, LD-PE – soft plastic (film).

Packages and various packaging from household appliances.

4. PP – can be hard and in the form of a film.

Packing from sour cream, chocolate, packages for bread, cereals.

5. PS – disposable tableware, containers, foamed substrates from slicing, vegetables, polystyrene.

It is essential that plastic 1 and 2 are taken almost everywhere. But 3, 4 and 5 are taken only in some places, which is an additional factor of pollution [10].

III. Results

In order to prevent pollution caused by the use of plastic products, etc., it is necessary to determine the prerequisites, that is, the causes of pollution. The causes of pollution and ways to prevent them are shown in Table 2.

TABLE 2. REASONS FOR THE EFFECT OF POLLUTANTS AND WAYS OF THEIR PREVENTION

Figure 2. Rubbish from plastics

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A special ecological aspect is the ability of plastic materials to be recycled and used.

For example, materials based on polymeric compounds containing unsaturated carbon bonds are oxidized during processing and are also susceptible to ozone aging.

This applies to the same plastic ABS, to divinyl styrene thermoplastic elastomers.

Their secondary use is difficult. However, thermoplastic polymeric materials based on polyolefins (PP), polyamides (PA 6, PA 66), and polyesters (PET, PETE), which are very accessible now, retain their properties to a sufficient degree. In addition, they are responsible for other aspects of environmental safety, namely in the processing (injection molding, extrusion).

Figure 3. Principle of rational choice of plastics

Based on the methods for preventing pollution proposed in Table 2, it is possible to identify methods for combating pollution of nature associated with the production of plastics.

Since materials in the process of processing into products should not significantly adversely affect the environment and wildlife, the principle of rational choice from the environmental viewpoint of the material plastic products that is used for this is needed. In Fig. 3 presents a generalized scheme for the rational choice of plastics.

To the basic principle of preventing pollution due to clogging with debris from plastics, we can refer products wrapped in plastic such as PETE, PCV, LDPE, PS.

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Conclusion Plastics contain many different types

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of chemicals, depending on the plastic type. The addition of chemicals is the main reason why these materials have become so multi-purpose, but this creates problems associated with it.

The constant increase in the population directly leads to environmental pollution.

Because of the increase in the population, the need for food, fresh water, electricity increases, the consumption volume of products from plastic processing increases, etc. The number of roads, sewerage and water supply systems, the increase in landfills, and the continually increasing amount of household and industrial waste leads to that harmful substances enter the air, and water even after many cleanings contains debris.

In accordance with the noted in the work, an overview of the main pollution types caused by the use of plastic products in one form or another was made. As a result, the most common plastics types are identified, because of which the main percentage of contamination occurs.

The types of plastics most widely used in everyday life are distinguished, which contribute to pollution due to their poor degradability or “specific” structure.

After reviewing the main types of plastics affecting pollution, the principle of rational plastics choice is defined.

The conducted researches made it possible to identify the main causes of pollution and suggest ways to prevent them, although we are no longer talking about environmental protection – now it needs to be cleaned immediately, and this is a global problem of civilization.

(2016): 13–36.

[2] K., Jarolimova, and I., Altweim. Environmental and Wildlife Impact Application. Chicago: ecoGURU, 2016.

[3] I., Nevludov, and S., Sotnik. “Development of the comprehensive method forquality assessment of plastic parts”, ВосточноЕвропейский журнал передовых технологий, no. 1 (2017): 18–26.

[4] R., Thompson. “Environment: A journey on plastic seas”, Nature, no. 547 (2017): 278.

[5] B., Worm and H. K., Lotze. “Plastic as a persistent marine pollutant”, Annual Review of Environment and Resources, no. 1 (2017): 1–26.

[6] Z., Lin, and L., Wang. “A study on environmental bisphenol a pollution in plastics industry areas”, Water, Air, & Soil Pollution, no. 228 (2017): 98.

[7] C., Qu, and A. L., Doherty. “Polyurethane Foam-Based Passive Air Samplers in Monitoring Persistent Organic Pollutants: Theory and Application”, In Environmental Geochemistry (Second Edition): 521–542.

[8] A. C., Stern. Fundamentals of air pollution.

Elsevier, 2014.

[9] C., Phillips. “Revealing Materials: plastics in alternative food economies”, Australian Geographer, no. 48 (2017): 169–184.

[10] Liboiron, M. “Redefining pollution and action: The matter of plastics”, Journal of material culture, no. 21 (2016): 87–110.

References [1] H. Farraji and N. Q., Zaman. “Overpopulation and Sustainable Waste Management”, International Journal of Sustainable Economies Management (IJSEM), no. 5

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The Aggressiveness - Factor involved in the Deviant Behavior of Minors 1. Sandu Mihaela Luminita, PhD

Lecturer at Department of Psychology and Social Work Ovidius University of Constanta Romania

2. Ispas Kristine Viorica, PhD psychologist in an Individual Cabinet of Psychology, Constanta, Romania

ARTICLE INFO

ABSTRACT

Article history: Received 21 February 2018 Received in revised form 24 April Accepted May 5 2018 Available online 20 June 2018 doi: 10.18638/dialogo.2018.4.2.3

Criminal deviance teenage phenomenon, known as juvenile delinquency, there is now in our country, with increased intensity. Criminal statistics, consisting of specialized institutions of social control are the revelation in this respect they demonstrated an increased frequency of crimes committed by juveniles and young adults during the period following the revolution of December 1989. Analysis of this specificity, depending on education and highlight the main mechanisms of social control of juvenile behavior that acts in our society makes it possible to develop a program of measures aimed, on the one hand, prevent breaches by young people, and second part to avoid the issue of criminal and optimize their social integration.

Thus, in this paper we proposed to analyze the relationship between aggression and deviant behavior, the purpose of research is to identify a possible connection between aggressive personality structure and deviant behavior, appeared to minors.

Keywords: aggression; deviant behavior; juvenile; criminal; social control; minors;

© 2014 RCDST. All rights reserved.

I. INTRODUCTION

The education and training of young people for their optimal integration into social life and activity is one of the most important functions of the family, parents exercising, directly or indirectly, educational and formative influences on their own children.

The family educational climate is a

very complex psychosocial element, shows Mitrofan, comprising the set of mental states, interpersonal relationships, attitudes, etc., which characterize the group for a long time. This climate , family atmosphere can be positive or negative, where family becomes the “primary soil of the development of human nature” and the child becomes the image of the parents, and a reference criterion for their attitude.

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Family dissociation and misunderstanding is commonly found in adolescents families with behavioral and behavioral disorders [1] “By putting the family’s role in the first place of child’s personality development, we can define the family as the plenary environment that assures the complex needs of the children: love and emotional security, new experiences, encouragement and appreciation, etc.

There are situations where biological parents cannot or do not want to take responsibility for caring for their own children. Therefore, children from these families are at risk of abandonment and separation is a profound trauma with major repercussions on the child’s performance, all the more if it remains institutionalized.

The separation of parents and the lack of a secure family environment, be it a longterm separation or a short-term, is felt as a trauma and leads to an emotional and behavioral imbalance for the child in this situation. “ [2].

As such, we call aggressiveness all those voluntary actions aimed at a person or an object, which have as their reason the production - in an open or symbolic form - of damage, offense or pain. [3].

The deviant behavior is based on both internal factors, related to minors offenders psychology, and external factors, which tend to inadequate the legal and moral system of society. Hence the necessity of carrying out a forensic psychiatric expertise to study changes in the behavior of minors due to mental disorders occurring either in the social context in which they develop, either in the context of age. [4].

The first element, of the triune concept, which intervenes in the formation of juvenile deviance and delinquency, is the personality training environment, especially the aggressive personality. It is known that aggression is a behavior gained during the

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evolution of an individual (ontogenetically) and not inherited; results from here the existence of a multitude of environmental factors that determine the appearance and manifestation of aggression. These factors were divided into family and group factors, social and institutional, in the literature (Durkheim), being described as a state of macrosocial, microsocial (family) and institutional. [5].

The relationship of the family with the church or religion influences the personality and age of the child [6]: - Up to 7 years old the child develops within the family and takes over the religious model of the parents.

- after 7 years, to the family’s ideas and believes it is added the influences from the school.

- after 13 years they have access to religious literature and media that brings to them models, other than family religiosity, and they begin to doubt the authenticity of the parents’ model.

- adolescence is a period of transition, when personality leaves the childhood, claims the adult status, and it obtains it when he does not claims it anymore.

With regard to the emergence of tensions and conflicts between parents on the one hand, and between parents and children on the other hand, they can be caused either by the social-economic situation of the family, highlighted by limited living space, mismanagement of family budget and inadequate living conditions. Educational deficiencies also play an important role in inappropriate behavior, with parental mistakes being allocated differently, depending on their roles: to mother-the affection and to father-the authority.

A family atmosphere characterized by quarrels and strong language has negative repercussions on the adolescent’s psyche, causing emotional trauma, who will put

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their mark on how to think, feel and act, on the future teenager.

II. OBJECTIVES

The purpose of the research is to identify the existing relationship between a possible aggressive personality structure and the deviant behavior that occurs to minors. From this point of view, the minor is perceived from the perspective of three distinct hypostases: the minor as a witness to deviant behavior, the minor as a victim of the deviant behavior of other minors with degrading potential, and the minor as an aggressor.

The objectives of research include: - identifying the possibility of occurrence of the deviant behavior at the minor who was a witness of aggressive behavior; - identifying the possibility of occurrence of deviant behavior at the minor who was a victim of aggressive behavior; - Identifying the relationship between deviant behavior and personality factors involved in aggressiveness.

III. HYPOTHESES

Starting from the research objectives, we tried to demonstrate that there is a strong link between an aggressive personality structure and deviant behavior in minors.

The secondary assumptions of the study state that there is a link between the witnesses of aggressive behavior and the emergence of aggressive behavior, and we can also assume that a victim of aggression will develop aggressive behavior. Research design is therefore a correlative design, with hypotheses being bidirectional.

IV. METHODS/INSTRUMENTS

In order to achieve the research objectives, we used the personality questionnaire Zuckerman-Kuhlman (ZKPQ) to investigate aggressive personality structures. The deviant behavior was investigated on the basis of a questionnaire built to assess the three main dimensions: the minor as a witness of the deviant behavior, the minor as the victim of deviant behavior and the minor as an aggressor.

IV. LOT OF PARTICIPANTS The study was conducted on a number of 45 subjects selected on a voluntary basis, using the convenience sampling. We chose this method because it is impossible to identify all members of the population. [6].

The distribution of age-related of research participants is as follows: 14 subjects has age12 years; 8 subjects are 13 years of age; 8 subjects are 14 years of age; 8 subjects are 15 years of age; 7 subjects are 16 years of age. According to the biological type of the subjects, we encounter : 26 boys (57.8%) and 19 girls (42.2%) . The proportions are relatively balanced given the specifics of the school.

V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The occurrence frequencies, expressed as a percentage, of the subjects’ answers to the dimension “Minor as a witness” [7]: - 20% of respondents surveyed witnessed situations where students threatened teachers; - 20% of the subjects had witnessed physical or verbal aggression among colleagues; - 17.78% of the subjects saw other colleagues drinking alcoholic beverages; - 15.56% have heard colleagues addressed offensive words other colleagues; - 13.33% have seen colleagues who have

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stolen goods from other colleagues; - 11.11% of respondents said they prefer situations where some people they do not like, are humiliated.

The frequency of occurrence of questionnaire responses for the “Minor as a Victim” dimension is as follows: - 20% of the subjects said they were urged by their colleagues to drink alcohol; - 20% of the subjects were offended or humiliated by the other colleagues (pupils); - 17.78% of the subjects received threats from the teachers; - 15.56% of the students were deposed by money or other personal goods; - 13.33% of students said they were sometimes struck by other colleagues. It can be noted frequency of occurrence of questionnaire responses for the size of “Minor as aggressor” figure 2 , is as follows: - 17.78% of the questioned subjects acknowledged that there were times when they were indisciplined at school; - 11.11% of the subjects said there were situations in which teachers threatened.

There were also cases where respondents surveyed hit other colleagues (6.67%), and aggressed other persons outside school (6.67%).

Most subjects act impulsively when they are angry (11.11%), which causes others to act impulsively (8.89%).

Insults are very common among students, 11.11% of them, saying they do not accept being offended, but if that happens, then they offend, and they have moments when they feel the need to hit someone.

Analogously, we analyzed the distribution of the results for the variables of the ZKPQ questionnaire, resulting in the following general aspects: Can be observed the occurrence frequencies of the subjects’ responses to

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the ZKPQ personality test, for ”Aggressivity” dimension. Low scores indicate lack of aggression, while high scores indicate its presence.

In Figure 3, it is observed that subjects exhibit relatively low aggressive tendencies.

In order to verify the main hypothesis, according to which there is a strong link between an aggressive personality structure and deviant behavior in minors, we calculated the Pearson correlation coefficient between two variables. The variable that measures actual deviant behavior in minors is the variable “Minor as an aggressor,” and aggressive behavior is particularly highlighted by the variable ”aggressivity” in the ZKPQ questionnaire.

As we can see in the table and figure number 10, there is a significant and strong link between aggressive deviant behavior and aggression as a personality structure (r = 0.89; p <0.01) among minors, meaning that as aggressive factor subjects’ scores increase, aggressive deviant behavior also increases.

The linearity of the relationship can be observed from the “ cloud of dots” chart, shown below.

Table 1 - Correlation between deviant behavior and aggression

Although we assumed that ZKPQ’s “aggressiveness” personality factor would be most involved in the emergence of aggressive deviant behavior, we will also study the links that exist between this behavior and other personality factors.

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Table 2 - The correlation between deviant behavior - aggressive type and other personality factors analyzed.

We note the existence of two significant correlations between deviant aggressive behavior in minors and impulsivity (r = 0.98, p <0.01), but also between aggressive deviant behavior and activity (r = 0.38, p <0.01). While the correlation with impulsivity is a strong correlation, the correlation coefficient with the scale of activity indicates a weak link between these two variables.

We do not see the existence of a significant correlation between deviant aggressive behavior and the anxiety scale.

Both correlations are positive, but as can be seen in Figure 12, if impulsivity is directly related to aggressive behavior, not the same thing we can say about the activity.

In this sense, the relationship appears to be rather for high values of activity scale, compared to people with low scores at this factor. Following this correlative study, we can say that a minor who develops aggressive behavior is a fast-paced person who does not support criticism, to which he react violently. He does not follow the rules, knowingly violates them, has no

patience and does not feel sorry. Such a person generally risks, but risk to him is a pleasure. Does not care about feelings of others, it is boastful , very insistent and easy to be annoyed. He is the adept of the dictum, “the best defense is the attack.”

To impose his will, he does not have the scruples. Aggressive behavior can occur in people full of vitality and energy, with a high workforce, stress-resistant. They are always ready to fight, restless and can not stand without doing anything. Generally, they are the “engine” of the group and also trains the others. Of the four personality scales identified as being involved in aggressive juvenile delinquency behavior, we have demonstrated that there are strong links with three of them. However, we still have not shown the weight of these three dimensions in the emergence of this type of behavior, nor have we been able to establish a model of their role in aggressive behavior. In order to achieve this goal, we used linear regression to see how much of the aggressive delinquent behavior can be explained by the influence of these three variables. Following the linear regression we used a single regression model, in which the dependent variable (criterion) was represented by “The minor - aggressor” and the independent variables (predictors) are the three scales identified as having maximum correlations with the criterion.

Table 3 - Validity of the regression model [8] with three predictors.

Following the linear regression analysis, we find from Table 3 that the model used is a model that explains significantly the variance of the criterion “the minor as an

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aggressor” (F (3,41) = 346,19; p <0,01).

If we study the sum of the squares in the second column, we note that out of the sum of 360.57, representing the total variance of the criterion, 346.88 can be explained by the model used, remaining only 13.64 residual.

Table 4 - Regression Model Description

Studying the characteristics of the regression model, we note that it actually explains 95.9% of the variance of the criterion, having a multiple correlation coefficient between the three predictors and the criterion R2 adjusted = 0.959. With the help of the three ZKPQ scales (aggressiveness, impulsiveness and activity), we can explain 95.6% of the variance of the “ the minor as an aggressor” criterion. The extremely small difference belongs to other aspects of personality or the environment.

Table 5 - Standardized and non-standardized regression coefficients

However, we do not know for now the share of each of the three predictor variables in explaining the criterion “the minor as an aggressor”. However, by analyzing the table number 12, which contains the regression coefficients for the three predictors, we find that the most important predictor of the deviant aggressive behavior of the minor is “impulsivity” (B = 0.54, Beta = 0.88) a significant factor in explaining this type of

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behavior (t = 12.45; p <0.01).

The second predictor, “aggression”, has little explanatory power (B = 0.07, Beta = 0.09) and also insignificant (t = 1.34; p> 0.05).

Finally, the predictor “activity” is also the weakest (B = 0.02, Beta = 0.03), obviously its explanatory power is also insignificant (t = 0.89, p> 0.05).

Based on this model, if we know the scores of a subject in the three ZKPQ factors, we can predict at a sufficiently high level of accuracy its potential to develop aggressive behavior using the following formula using the rough notes: CompAgresiv = 0,66 + 0,07 * Agresivity + 0,54 * Impulsivity + 0,02 * Activity If we use a standardized, note system, such as the “z” or derived notes, the regression constant disappears and the regression equation becomes: CompAgresiv = 0,09 * Agresivity + 0,88 * Impulsivity + 0,03 * Activity Of course, by ranking these predictors, we can say that in the emergence of aggressive delinquent behavior in minors the greatest role is impulsivity, followed by a great distance by aggressiveness and ultimately activity.

The main hypothesis of the study is supported. Indeed, an aggressive personality structure determines deviant behavior in minors, a behavior, characterized by aggressiveness. The main component that causes such behavior is, as we have shown, impulsivity.

Table 6 - Relationship between the minor as a witness, the minor as

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CONCLUSIONS

a victim and the minor as an aggressor

Studying the relationship between the minor as a witness of aggression, the minor as a victim of aggression and the minor as an aggressor, we find that we can not establish a significant link between these components, all correlations being insignificant.

We can not say that victimization of the minor or the fact that he is witnessing aggressive behavior can cause or inhibit such behavior.

But we intend to follow what relations can exist between the minor as a witness of aggression, minor as a victim of aggression and personality components.

Table 7- Relationship between the minor as a witness and personality factors

Under the minor’s look as a witness to aggression, we do not observe the existence of links between this variable and any of the four factors analyzed.

We believe that being witness to aggressive behavior is not related to personality issues such as aggression, impulsiveness, activity, or anxiety.

Table 8 – Correlations

The minor as a victim of aggression has a strong significant relationship to anxiety factor (r = 0.96; p <0.01). As his aggression gets stronger, his anxiety is gaining more significant values.

The study started with identifying the possibility of occurrence of deviant behavior in juveniles, the minor being seen in a threefold hypostasis: a witness of aggressive behavior, a victim of aggressive behavior and an aggressor. We also sought to identify the relationship between aggressive behavior and certain personality factors involved.

After analyzing the data, we have shown that there is a significant and strong link between the aggressive deviant behavior of the minor and aggression as a personality structure, in the sense that, as the subjects’ scores on the aggressiveness factor increase, aggressive deviant behavior also increases. Stronger correlations have been achieved between aggressive behavior and impulsivity, but also between aggressive behavior and the activity, these being the two important dimensions involved in aggressive behavior in minors. While impulsivity is directly and linearly related to aggressive behavior, activity correlates with this type of behavior at relatively high values.

Finally, we concluded that a minor who develops aggressive behavior is a fast-paced person who does not support criticism, he does not follow the rules, knowingly violates them, has no patience and does not feel sorry. Such a person generally risks, but the risk to him is a pleasure. Does not care about feelings of others, it is boastful, very insistent and easy to be annoyed. He is adept at the dictum, “the best defense is the attack.

Aggressive behavior can occur to the people full of vitality and energy, with a high workforce, stress-resistant. They are always ready to fight, restless and can not stand without doing anything. Generally, this persons are the “engine” of the group and also engages the others.

We proposed to find out the weight of

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the personality factors in the aggressive behavior, and for this, we used the linear regression method, through which we found that in the emergence of aggressive delinquent behavior in minors the most significant role is impulsivity, followed by a considerable distance by aggressiveness and ultimately activity.

Studying then the relationship between the minor as a witness of aggression, the minor as a victim of attack and the minor as an aggressor, we find that we can not establish a significant link between these components, all the correlations being insignificant. We can not say that victimization of the minor or the fact that he is witnessing aggressive behavior can cause or inhibit such behavior.

References [1] Mitrofan, N., Zdrenghea, V., Butoi, T. – Judicial psychology, Publishing House and Press “Şansa” SRL, Bucharest, 1992.

[2]. Grigore, M., Repere psiho-sociale ale evaluarii in asistenta maternala. Editura Sitech, Craiova 2016, p. 25,26 [3] Ronschburg, Jeno, 1979 – Fear, anger, aggression, Didactic and Pedagogical Publishing House, Bucharest, p. 118 [4] Scripcaru Gh. , Astarastoae V. , Boisteanu P. , Chirita V., Scripcaru C. - Forensic Psychiatry, Polirom Publishing House, Iasi, 2002 [5] Scripcaru Gh., Astarastoae V., Scripcaru C. Legal Medicine for jurists, Polirom Publishing House, Iasi, 2005 [6] Sintion, F. Călin, M.F., 2014 – Methodology of research in socio-human sciences, Ovidius University Press Publishing House, Constanța, p. 116.

[7] Sintion, F., Calin, M.F., (2012), Methodology of research in psychology, Ovidius University Press Publishing House,, Constanta [8] Sintion, F., Calin, M.F., (2015), Statistics in socio-human sciences, vol II, Ovidius University Press Publishing House, Constanta, p.49

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Biography Sandu Mihaela Luminita

Graduate of the Faculty of Psychology and Social Assistance at the Andrei Saguna University of Constanta and of the Faculty of Sociology, Ovidius University in Constanta; I am a Doctor of Social Sciences at the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, Lecturer at Ovidius University from Constanta, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences. My field of interest is social psychology, work psychology and judicial psychology.

Ispas Kristine Viorica

Graduate of the Psychological Faculty of Andrei Saguna University of Constanta – licentiate of the University of Bucharest. Licentiate of the Faculty of Law and Administrative Sciences at Andrei Saguna University in Constanta; graduate of the Master of Clinical Psychology – evaluation and therapeutic intervention of the Psychosociology Faculty of Andrei Saguna Univerity in Constanta. Curently, i work as a psychologist at Ispas Kristine – Individual Cabinet of Psychology and Adlerian Psychoterapy.

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The Phenomenon of Overpopulation within the Jewish People Adrian Vasile, PhD

Lecturer at Faculty of Orthodox Theology Ovidius University of Constanta Romania

ARTICLE INFO

ABSTRACT

Article history: Received 25 April 2018 Received in revised form 10 May Accepted May 15 2018 Available online 20 June 2018 doi: 10.18638/dialogo.2018.4.2.4

Overpopulation is a theory that states that the total number of the inhabitants of the world, which is continuously growing, is very high while the resources of the earth are not enough to sustain and feed so many human beings. The continuous growth of the population is seen today, by those who mathematically calculate the world and completely disregard God’s presence and work in it, as one of the leading causes that generate environmental problems such as climatic changes, deforestation, a decrease in water resources, etc. If we accepted the reality of the world’s overpopulation as well as the impossibility of offering enough food to the inhabitants of the world, this would impose implementing specific world laws to control the total number of the inhabitants.

Overpopulation is seen as one of the most significant current world issues, but from an Orthodox perspective, this theory of the contemporary man has got these abilities because he parted with God and completely ignores the Creator’s providence towards His creation. © 2014 RCDST. All rights reserved.

Keywords: overpopulation; the Israelites; the Hebrews’ slavery in Egypt; Moses; Canaan; the Canaanites; Joshua;

I. INTRODUCTION

Man naturally lives in a more complex environment than animals.

When researching animals, the way density is measured by relating the number of species to a particular area in which the species lives. On the other side, gross density is obtained by relating population to a specific area, and it is done mainly for those who live in the urban areas. The density of the urban

population is, first of all, a consequence of the number of households within a building, a building that is part of a smaller residential area, a residential area that is part of the total area. We also speak of overpopulation when we take into consideration the number of people per room, but this is substantially less important for our approach.

As far as behavioral patterns for excessive overpopulation levels are

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concerned, a relatively small difference has been noticed between the frequency and the severity of the conflict. In the context of overpopulation, sociologic research has revealed increased levels of morbidity and/ or mortality, increased levels of mental disease, insufficient care for the children, as well as increased levels of aggressiveness.

Many times, these were labeled as „pathological behavior” as a result of overpopulation. In most cases, research that looks into overpopulation as a factor leading to aggressive behavior focuses on the frequency of these types of behavior.

In this paper, we intend to analyze two episodes in the history of the Jewish people mentioned in the books of the Old Testament in which the phenomenon of overpopulation was present. These are the abominable act of killing all Hebrew male firstborns by the Egyptian Pharaoh’s order (Exodus 1) and the overpopulation that occurred when the chosen people led by Joshua entered the Promised Land.

II. OVERPOPULATION – THE REASON

FOR KILLING THE HEBREW BABIES (EXODUS 1)

According to the first book of the Pentateuch, Genesis, Jacob’s favorite son, Joseph, was abandoned by his envious brothers and was sold as a slave in Egypt where, in time, his gift of interpreting dreams made him become one of the Pharaoh’s counselors.

A great famine brought Jacob’s sons in search of food to Egypt where Joseph had a prominent position in the service of the Pharaoh. Joseph welcomed his family and the Pharaoh personally met Jacob, the patriarch. On this occasion, the Israelites were given an important piece of land in Egypt, to prosper, to own the land and grow and breed. (Genesis 47:11-27). Exodus (12:40) tells us that Jacob’s descendants

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lived in Egypt for approximately 430 years [1]. Some interpreters considered this text to be symbolical, seeing these 430 years as the mere succession of several generations [2].

The Israelites could have continued to freely live in Egypt for many generations for a long time, but a Pharaoh, noticed a vast increase in their number and, being faced with overpopulation, tried to turn shepherds into laborers. When the Israelites stood up against their slavery and were refused permission to leave Egypt, they decided to leave Egypt just the same, an event known as Exodus.

The leader of the Israelites as they left Egypt and the genius behind the monotheist reform was born, raised and educated in Egypt. Moses’ extraordinary life began with an event mentioned in the Holy Scripture which is very similar to an ancient Mesopotamian tradition according to which Sargon I (~ 2300 B.C.) was born in the Mesopotamian city of Akkad, where the Akkadians got their name from. Sargon’s mother put her baby boy in a reed basket and set it afloat down the Euphrates. A palace gardener saved the baby and raised in the palace to become a great leader of his people later. Centuries later, in Egypt, a similar event happened in the life of Moses, whose mother put him in a papyrus basket and he floated down the Nile. A princess saved the baby and raised him in an Egyptian palace to later become a great ruler of his people [3].

According to the text of the Old Testament, baby Moses was set afloat on the river as a consequence of the Pharaoh’s decree which commanded that all male newborns be thrown into the river, and the girls be let live: “Then Pharaoh commanded his entire people and said: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live!”. (Exodus 1:22).

This terrible decision was taken because

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of the overpopulation, as the Hebrews surpassed the Egyptians in numbers, the latter fearing an uprising in which they would have been outnumbered by a presumptive army that could have made an alliance with other enemies. [4] We believe this was the reason why the killing of the baby boys was ordered, supported by the text of the Exodus 1:10 in which the ruler explains the reason why he wants all the boys killed: “Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country!”.

There is another theory according to which overpopulation was not the reason of killing the babies, because, in an overpopulated situation, the Hebrews would not have been prevented from leaving.

Furthermore, the Pharaoh specifically ordered the Hebrew midwives to kill the newborns, but to spare the girls. If indeed overpopulation was the reason for Pharaoh to command the infanticide, there would be no reason for him to specify the death of the male babies. Consequently, a different reason was speculated for the Pharaoh’s terrible command. When certain polytheist peoples were faced with famine because of the drought or other reasons for not having a harvest, this cataclysm was considered a punishment of Mother Earth. Thus, the people made certain gestures towards the upset goddess, gestures which included sacrificing animals or, in extreme situations, sacrificing youngsters or even children.

Consequently, the Pharaoh’s decree, which specifies the death of male babies, can be seen as a continuation of the Canaanite ritual of sacrificing a young man to ensure a good harvest. We can find stories about the death of young men in desperate times in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh relates the death of young men in troubled times when Ishtar punished the people of Uruk with the coming of the Bull of Haven, a creature associated with a seven-year-long drought.

Once the Bull came to earth, a violent earthquake opened the ground, and many people died, but those who died were not men, women, young people and children, but they were all youngsters. “When the Bull of Haven fell, a gorge opened, and one hundred young men of Uruk fell in it. Two hundred young men, three hundred young men. On the second sound, another gorge opened, and one hundred more Uruk young men fell in it. Two hundred young men, three hundred young men.” [5] Getting back to our topic, the text of the Scripture explicitly mentions the fact that the Pharaoh and the Egyptians fear Israel (Exodus 1:10-12) [6]. It is crucial that the text places the two ethnic groups face to face: the Hebrews and the Egyptians, but the author never labels the Egyptians as an evil people. However, the blessings of the divinity are mentioned, as well as the fact that fertility is an unusual gift from God. This characteristic of the Jewish people of being very fertile has created an ambiguity, that of being considered a supernatural phenomenon. Is there indeed a supernatural cause for this remarkable fertility in terms of the explicit divine intervention or is it just a natural process? The reader is suggested an unusual, unnatural, unfamiliar process, the birth of the Israelites oscillating between wonder and a familiar act.

If the reason for overpopulation in Mesopotamia in accordance with the Atrahasis tradition has nothing supernatural about it [7], the text of Exodus highlights the way the fertility of Israel is beyond nature. “Here the fertility of Israel does not contradict the order of the gods, but the human order. Again, there are clues that point to the divine agent behind the scene, without being explicitly stated as such” [8].

Also, “not mentioning Yahweh in Exodus 1:2-22 is indeed a strange element”. [9] This fertility of the Hebrews in Egypt, be it natural or seen as Yahweh’s blessing for

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his people, was an important cause in the occurrence of overpopulation, determining the Pharaoh to take the cynical, cruel and horrible decision.

As we have already seen, the book of Exodus starts with the history of the Hebrews in Egypt, reminding us of the divine command in Eden: “Multiply and replenish the earth” as their increased number is mentioned: “And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceedingly mighty, and the land was filled with them”. (Exodus 1:7) the multiplying of the Hebrews in Egypt represents a fulfillment of the primordial divine commandment, the Exodus reinterpreting the events primordially and “adapting them to the historical human time”. [10] What is mentioned in Exodus 1 regarding the ever growing population in Egypt also interact with a variety of themes that are found in the old common literature of the Middle East, just as we have already seen. Israel’s rapidly growing population, for instance, hints at the reason for overpopulation, in which human reproduction becomes uncontrollable; there is an attempt to stifle this overpopulation, though it is often prevented or at least not fully successful.

Consequently, concentrating upon the prodigious fertility of Israel implies the existence of a threat, both to Egypt and to Israel. [11] The ruler of Egypt plays the role of the one who wants to suppress the phenomenon that troubled him: “He said to his people: “ Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country!” (Exodus 1:10). Pharaoh decides that the Israelites laborers be forced to work, but this solution does not pay off: “But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew”.

(Exodus 1:12). This makes Pharaoh instruct

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two midwives to kill the Israelite newborn baby boys.

Again, the Pharaoh’s plan fails because the Hebrew midwives play tricks and let the boys live. When the Pharaoh confronts them about their disobedience, they explain to him: “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive”. (Exodus 1:19). Thus, the Israelites owe their survival and fertility to the good deeds of the two midwives. Then he takes the decision to have all the boys killed. We notice the absolutely terrible solution of the Egyptian ruler for the phenomenon of overpopulation of the Hebrews to be limited and, in time, eliminated.

III. OVERPOPULATION – A PROBLEM

WHEN ENTERING THE CANAAN

Overpopulation was a problem which appeared at the moment when the Hebrews entered Canaan, certainly at a lower level in comparison with the problems which appear in certain urban areas nowadays, especially when it comes to Manasseh’s tribe which was very numerous and received a double inheritance than the other tribes.

The area between the Mediterranean Sea and the River of Jordan, between the river of Egypt and the area near Ugarit (Syria) and as far as the Euphrates was known as Canaan in pre-Israelite ancient times. It was promised to the Israelites, and, to live in this Promised Land, they left Egypt, where they had lived for 400 years and wandered for 40 years in the desert.

Moses did not have the chance to enter the Promised Land, as he died on Mount Nebo, in the Moab region. But before joining his ancestors, Moses vested Joshua, son of Nun, as a leader.

The biblical history in the Book of Joshua starts with the description of the conquest of Jericho. The city is spied upon by scouts

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and relying on their „report,“ Joshua dares cross the Jordan River. The priests with the Ark of the Covenant walk ahead thus calming down the waves. The bed of the river stays dry as long as the priests stand in the middle of the Jordan River. The representatives of the 12 tribes pick up a rock from the dry bed of the river and build a pyramid with them on the bank of the river to commemorate God’s miracle. As soon as the priests carrying the ark step on the other bank of the river, the river flow goes back to normal.

After crossing the Jordan River and occupying Canaan, the Israelites divide the country among the 12 tribes, by drawing lots. This area, which spread on the two sides of the Jordan River, came to belong to the 9 tribes and to a part of Manasseh’s tribe, because the tribes of Gad, Ruben and the other part of Manasseh’s tribe returned and settled down in Transjordan which had been conquered by the Israelites prior to Moses’ death.

Soon after dividing the country, the people of Israel underwent a state of semianarchy, especially from a political point of view. Though united by their faith in one single God and by the same interests related to the ownership of the land, after receiving part of the inheritance, the 12 tribes started living in semi-autonomy, which led to their progressive fall under the blows of the Canaanite population they previously had only partially conquered.

The problem of overpopulation within the Israelite people is mentioned by Joshua in his book in chapter 17. „ This was the allotment for the tribe of Manasseh as Joseph’s firstborn” (Joshua 17:1), besides the land allotted in Gilead and Bashan, the tribe also received another piece of land in Canaan. Actually the land in Gilead and Bashan were given to Makir, Manasseh’s firstborn because he showed his bravery in the battles against the Canaanites. Also, the other sons of Manasseh received their

territories: Abiezer, Helek, Asriel, Shechem, Hepher and Shemida (Joshua 17:2). Among Manasseh’s sons were Salfaad, son of Hepher and Galaad son of Makir who only had daughters: Mahla, Noa, Hogla, Milca and Tirta. [12] They asked Moses for a separate part of the Promised Land, and they were granted it (Numbers 27:2). According to this promise they came before the commission designated to divide the land and repeated this promise. Consequently, there were ten families of Manasseh, which received land near Ephraim [13], five men and five women: „Manasseh’s share consisted of ten tracts of land besides Gilead and Bashan east of Jordan.” (Joshua 17:5). The limits and surface of the inheritance of Manasseh’s ten families are described by Joshua in 17:710.

In the lands they received evidently there lived Canaanites as well who, as Joshua tells us, could not be driven out by the descendants of Manasseh and Ephraim, sons of Joseph. Being more numerous and more powerful, they turned the Canaanites into slaves, but they could not make them leave (Joshua 17:12), and therefore there appeared the phenomenon of overpopulation.

For this reason, there emerged a great discontent among them, and they let Joshua know about it: „Why have you given us only one allotment and one portion for an inheritance? We are a numerous people, and the Lord has blessed us abundantly” (Joshua 17:14) at first sight, this discontent should not have existed since Ephraim counted 32500 men and Manasseh 59000 men, compared to Judah who had 76.500, Dan who had 64.400 or even Issachar who had 64.300 men and, therefore, it was impossible to claim more than the territory of a single tribe. [14] Moreover, their allotment was one of the most fertile parts of Palestine. For, even

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though the mountains of Ephraim have the same features as those of Judah’s, separate mountains are not as rugged nor as dry, since only several of them reach the height of 2500 meters above sea level. Furthermore, the mountains have large valleys and fertile highlands, which are covered by fertile fields and olive trees groves, vine and fig trees. To the west, the mountains are connected by a hill to the very fertile Plain of Sharon. „The land here has black, deep and rootless soil, which is almost entirely plowed and has got such unusual fertility that a farmed field here could yield an unequaled granary meant to provide food for the whole country.” [15] We see that it is neither the size of the allotment nor the number of those belonging to these tribes that caused discontent among those of Ephraim and Manasseh, but the fact that they had to share the land with the tribes living in those areas which could not be driven out.

Joshua granted the request of Joseph’s sons, offering them a solution just as well: „If you are so numerous and the hill country of Ephraim is too small for you, go up into the forest and clear the land for yourselves there in the land of the Perizzites and Rephaites!”

(Joshua 11:15). The „hill country of Ephraim” is used here, with a certain anticipative meaning, to refer to the mountain given as inheritance to the tribe of Ephraim.

Joseph’s children answered by saying that their mountain was not enough because all the Canaanites living in the valley had chariots fitted with iron, both those in Beth Shan and its settlements and those in the Jezreel Valley. [16] The territory included both the valley of Jordan near Beisan, and the plain of Jezreel, which opens towards the valley of Jordan, close by Beisan.

The plain of Jezreel is also known as the „great plain of Esdraelon” (Judith 1:4) and

by Josephus Flavius. This is the field of Ibn Aanier, which spreads to the south-west towards the Mediterranean Sea above

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Carmel and reaches the Jordan River. To the south it is connected to the Carmel Mountains, to Mount Ephraim and to the hills that connect the two mountains, to the north it is connected to the mountains of Galilee, to the west to the southern spurs of the mountains of Galilee and to the east to the Gilboa Mountains and to the Little Hermon. This territory used to be a very fertile one back then, even though it is deserted nowadays. „The chariots fitted with iron” were not equipped with scythes or blades, because these were introduced by king Cyrus and were not known to the Medes, Persians and Arabs; these were simply chariots made with iron, just as the Egyptian war chariots were made of wood and reinforced with metal nails and spikes. [17] Joshua continued to repeat his first answer, though more complete and containing the reasons why he allotted that piece of land. „You are numerous and very powerful. You will have not only one allotment.” (Joshua 17:17). He explained that, given the fact that they were numerous people, they could expand their borders: “You will have not only one allotment but the forest hill country as well. Clear it, and its farthest limits will be yours; though the Canaanites have chariots fitted with iron and though they are strong, you can drive them out”. [18] By hill we understand both the mountains of Ephraim, which were initially allotted, and those mentioned in Joshua 17:15 (the land of the Perizzites and Rephaites).

We have seen so far that overpopulation was a reason of discontent even in the times of Joshua because of the fact that Joseph’s descendants joined the local tribes, especially the Canaanites. Joshua’s solution was for them to act in a peaceful and diplomatic way. Initially he recommended that families should spread on a larger area to prevent any conflict with the local tribes,

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after which, should the situation continue, he recommended marginalizing the foreigners in order to force them find other territories where to live. That is why we can conclude by saying that the two solutions figured out by Joshua were more humane and worthy of a representative of God if we are to compare them to the terrible solution chosen by Pharaoh who did not want to let the Hebrews proliferate in Egypt.

CONCLUSIONS On overpopulation there have been many fears related to secret conspiracies which intend to reduce population by secrete, obscure means. Also, based upon this theory, the food industry gained more and more ground in using chemical substances and genetically modified organisms in agriculture. It is not that different from what happened in Egypt when Moses was born.

According to those who support this theory and fear the consequences of overpopulation, in order to avoid the difficulties of survival, the control of the population has to be a definite and constant one (in a natural way or through legislation).

At the end of the 18th century, referring to the relationship between population and the world economic situation, Thomas Malthus claimed that poverty, diseases, epidemics and wars are positive factors for mankind, given the fact that they ensure the balance between the number of people and the amount of the means of subsistence.

Malthus’s solutions are repugnant because they have nothing in common with the divine commandment “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” given to man in paradise, on the one hand, and on the other hand the Savior’s commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself”.

Unfortunately, methods to control the population such as eugenism, family planning, abortion make us think back about

the solution the Pharaoh of Egypt to reduce the population of Israel.

On the other hand, contemporary man, considering himself threatened by overpopulation, is very preoccupied by searching for other planets in various solar systems that could support life just as it is on Terra. In this respect, this year, NASA sent a satellite named TESS into space, with a mission of maximum importance: to discover the planets where there might be life. The satellite has already been launched and soon it will begin to search the sky for celestial bodies similar to Earth. This solution reminds us of the advice given by Joshua to Manasseh’s descendants, „If you are so numerous, go up into the forest and clear the land for yourselves”.

REFERENCES [1] Anthony Lyle, Ancient History: a Revised Chronology: An Updated Revision of Ancient History Based on new Archaeology, Volume 1, (Bloomington, IN: Author House, 2012), 226 [2] David Miano, Shadow on the Steps: Time Measurement in Ancient Israel, (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2010), 58 [3] S. A. Nigosian, From Ancient Writings to Sacred Texts: The Old Testament and Apocrypha, (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004), 55[ [4] Ron Rhodes, The Key Ideas Bible Handbook, (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2016), 18 [5] Eve Wood-Langford, Eden: The Buried Treasure, (Bloomington, IN: Author House, 2009), 100 [6] Paul Poulton, Exodus for Ordinary People: Unwrapping the Second Book of the Bible, (Eugene, OR: Resource Publications, 2016), 25 [7] See W.G.Lambert, A.R. Millard, Atra-Hasis: The Babylonian Story of the Flood, (Warsaw, IN: Eisenbrauns), 1999 [8] Werner H. Schmidt, Exodus, Vol. 2,

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(Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag des Erziehungsverein, 1988), p. 46-7 [9] Schmidt, Exodus, 145 [10] Ehud Ben Zvi, ‎Christoph Levin, Thinking of Water in the Early Second Temple Period, (Berlin: Walter de Gruyer, 2014), 410 [11] Moshe Greenberg, Understanding Exodus, (New York: Behrman House, 1969), 26 [12] John R. Kohlenberger, The Essential Evangelical Parallel Bible: New King James Version, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 528 [13] Parallel Bible, NASB/Amplified, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2006), 290 [14] Carl Friedrich Keil, Commentary on the Old Testament, (London: Forgotten Books, 2014), 40 [15] Rob Yule, Restoring the Fortunes of Zion, (Bloomington, IN: West Bow Press, 2017), 192 [16] Daniel Hillel, The Natural History of the Bible: An Environmental Exploration of the Hebrew Scriptures, (New York: Columbia University Press, 20060, 151 [17] John Canzella, Innocence and Anarchy, 2010, (New York: iUniverse, Inc., 2010), 58 [18] Ofw Debate: Do We Need To Return To Chimpanzee Level For .., http:// www.doomsteaddiner.net/forum/index. php?topic=7518.0 (accessed May 19, 2018).

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DIALOGO JOURNAL 4 : 2 (2018) 51 - 56

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This paper was presented in the

The Virtual International Conference on the Dialogue between Science and Theology. (DIALOGO-CONF 2018 ORI)

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held online, on the Journal’s website, from MAY 19 - 26, 2018

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The influence of subliminal messages on decision-making capacity Călin Mariana Floricica, PhD

Department of Psychology and Social Work Ovidius University of Constanta Romania

ARTICLE INFO

ABSTRACT

Article history: Received 26 February 2018 Received in revised form 22 April Accepted May 5 2018 Available online 20 June 2018 doi: 10.18638/dialogo.2018.4.2.5

Subliminal messages are a series of stimuli (visual and auditory) that have the power of influencing the psychic and human behavior, although they are not consciously perceived. These messages are so short that, once transmitted, the brain cannot detect them consciously. Therefore, through subliminal messages, the brain receives specific information without being able to refuse it, hence without discernment.

Although subliminal messages are everywhere, especially in the media, where commercials are made with an increasingly sophisticated psychological substrate, their power to influence our decisions and behavior is still debatable. As we will see, the power of these messages of significantly influencing certain decisions hangs much on the character traits we have, on our passions and desires.

Keywords: Subliminal messages; stimuli visual; stimuli auditory;

© 2014 RCDST. All rights reserved.

I. INTRODUCTION

In order to understand what subliminal messages mean, we need to define each element that constitutes this concept.

The message represents the vehicle of information. It includes the transmitted information as well as the symbol code that gives a certain meaning to the report.

It depends on two components: the transmitter and the receiver. It is encoded by the transmitter, transposed into signs,

signals, symbols, respectively in the language of a code. This is the content of communication. [1] (Abric Jean-Paul, 2002).

Subliminal refers to something that is beyond the threshold of consciousness, which cannot be made aware even by sustained effort.

Thus, the subliminal message corresponds to a message that transmits certain subliminal stimuli below the normal processing limits of conscious perception.

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eISSN: 2393-1744, cdISSN: 2392-9928 printISSN: 2457-9297, ISSN-L 2392-9928 ISBN 978-80-554-1466-9

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Subliminal excitement refers to an excitation below the normal sensory threshold, which cannot cause a conscious sensation.

Subliminal messages are defined as signals below the absolute threshold of our conscious capacity. As a result, we cannot become aware of subliminal stimuli, even if we try to detect them. Absolute threshold is defined as the lowest level of stimuli we can detect, whether visual, auditory, or sensory, etc. When an external stimulus falls below this threshold, it cannot be consciously detected.

Subliminal perception is considered to be the result of a deliberately communication technique designed to generate an answer so that people do things they would not normally do.

Both perception and reaction to subliminal messages take place at the subconscious level. What is often confusing are the terms of subliminal and supraliminal. Supraliminal is the opposite of the subliminal. While both evoke neuronal responses and therefore influence our behavior, supraliminal stimuli can be perceived by the conscious mind.

Subliminal stimuli (literally meaning “below the threshold”), unlike supraliminal stimuli or “over the threshold”, are any sensory stimuli below the individual threshold of conscious perception. A recent analysis of magnetic resonance imaging studies (fMRI) shows that subliminal stimuli activate certain regions of the brain, even though the participants are at an unconscious level. [2] (Loftus, Elizabeth F., Klinger, Mark R., 1992) Visual stimuli can be displayed so quickly, before the person can process them, or shown and then masked, thus interrupting the information processing. Audio stimuli can be played at very moderate volume, so as not to be obvious, consciously perceived or masked by other stimuli. [3] (Brooks, S.J., Savov V, Allzen E, Benedict C, Fredriksson R, Schiöth HB, 2012).

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Research of Philip M. Merikle [4] (1998) reviews the history of psychological investigations of unconscious perceptions and summarizes the current state of experimental research in this area of investigation. The conclusions of the research described in the paper illustrate how it is possible to distinguish between conscious and unconscious perception.

The most successful experimental strategy was to show that a stimulus can have qualitatively different consequences on congenial and affective reactions depending on how it was perceived: consciously or unconsciously. In addition, recent studies in which patients undergoing general anesthesia have shown that the effects of unconscious stimuli during surgery may take about 24 hours. Taken together, the results of these recent psychological investigations provide empirical support to highlight the importance of unconsciously perceived information in determining cognitive and affective responses.

In the Encyclopedia of Psychology, E. Kazdin [5] (2000), there is a discussion about subliminal perception. This occurs whenever it is found that the below the threshold of awareness stimuli seem to influence thoughts, feelings or actions. The term subliminal perception was initially used to describe situations where weak stimuli were perceived without awareness. In recent years, the term has been generalized to describe any situation in which stimuli that cannot be directly observed are perceived.

This concept of subliminal perception is of considerable interest because it suggests that people’s feelings, thoughts and actions are influenced by stimuli beyond their conscious perception. This interest is reflected in some of the earliest psychological studies conducted during the 1800s and early 1900s. In these early studies people were merely asked if they were aware when they perceived certain stimuli.

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For example, visual stimuli such as letters, figures, or geometric figures were displayed at such a distance by observers, who were communicating either that they do not see anything, or that they see only blurry points.

Also, auditory stimuli, such as the names of letters, were whispered so slowly that the observers said they could not hear any sound. In order to test whether these visual or auditory stimuli can be perceived despite the contrary statements, observers were asked to make assumptions about certain stimuli. For example, if half of the stimuli were written messages, and the other half – numbers, the observers had to tell what letters or numbers they had been presented.

The consistent result found in these early studies was that after the presentation of subliminal stimuli, the subjects were more likely to guess the stimuli, rather than they would have been able to guess them by chance. In other words, despite the statements of the observers who said they did not become aware of these stimuli, their responses indicated that sufficient information was perceived to make accurate assumptions about the stimuli. Over the years there have been many studies similar to these. Taken together, these studies show that considerable information meant to guide decisions or actions exist, even if subjects are not aware of it. [5] (E. Kazdin, 2000, pp. 497-499).

Another way in which subliminal perception has been demonstrated in laboratory studies shows that stimuli can be perceived even when presented under conditions that make it difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish one stimulus from another. Classical studies conducted by the British psychologist Marcel in the 1970s were based on previous results which indicate that a decision about a stimulus is facilitated or prepared when the stimulus follows a relevant stimulus.

These studies have not only confirmed

Marcel’s original discoveries but have also shown that other stimuli such as images, facial expressions, and certain spoken words, may also facilitate subsequent decisions even when presented under conditions that make it difficult to distinguish one stimulus from another. A firm conclusion that can be drawn from these studies is that considerable information is perceived even when subjects are not aware of it. [6] (A. Marcel, 1983) Nonverbal and paraverbal communication play an essential role in transmitting desired messages, or in perceiving subtle messages by listeners.

“Nonverbal communication transmits information, emotions, feelings, personality characteristics, etc.”This type of communication involves unconscious reactions, and nonverbal language is given more credibility than verbal language, believing that it transmits the true meanings of our interlocutor’s message.” [7] There is a lot of information on subliminal messages on the Internet. These are either overlooked or praised and loaded with enormous powers. It is appropriate, however, to look at them with a lot of discernment, that is, neither to overlook them, nor to consider them capable of fulfilling any desire.

The fact that in Romania the products containing subliminal information are forbidden must give us a thought. The Law on Advertising in Romania decides the following: “Advertising that is subliminal is prohibited” (Article 6 (b)). I do not know how respectful this law is, given the fact that the ads contain more and more psychological information.

Subliminal messages can influence choices and behavior only in certain contexts. They address our inner inclinations. The fact that the advertisers know the passions of the soul and channel the subliminal messages towards them can

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weaken our will to such an extent that we can no longer resist any temptation. The pride, the thirst for power and money, the sexuality, the saturation and comfort are the soul movements towards which most of the commercial messages (both messages that can be acknowledged and subliminal messages) are directed.

Persecutions against Christians in the Roman Empire are more actual than ever, but today they are too well hidden under fine manipulation techniques, under laws and carefully elaborated constitutions, so that humans can think of themselves as being free, even when they are not. When they come to know Christ and follow Him, Christians are no longer “from the world”, that is, by their special living they no longer live for the flesh and for the world, but they live in it as if they were from another world, as if they are waiting to leave it at any moment, in order to reach home, in the real world, that is, in the kingdom of Christ, of which Jesus says, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36 ).

In a time of apparent freedom, when the soul comes to being influenced by the most hidden methods, discernment remains the only escape. At the time of the persecutions, Christians “insisted in the teaching of the Apostles and in impartation, in breaking the bread (Liturgy) and in praying” (Acts 2:42). The freedom of will and the gift of discernment can only be kept in a permanent connection with God, who gives His Grace to all who seek and love Him.[8] II. OBJECTIVES

The main purpose of this paper is to prove whether the subliminal messages that are encountered every time in advertising, advertisements, and various spots alter our consumption behavior.

These advertisements are formulated in a way that is more agreeable and “edible”

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directed to the target audience for raising the interest, and finally to the purchase of the product in question. The packaging is interesting and attractive, but is the exterior the only manipulating factor? This is where subliminal messages and their ability to influence our decision-making capacity to a greater extent intervene.

III. HYPOTHESES

It is assumed that the effects of subliminal messages from the advertising ads change at least temporarily the decision-making capacity of the individual.

IV. METHODS/INSTRUMENTS

Questionnaire measuring the decisionmaking capacity of individuals. [9] The objective of this test is to assess the rationality of the decision maker. This means a reduced sensitivity to the decisional biases highlighted by empirical research that treated the issue of limited rationality of the human decision maker. The test includes 14 items describing decision situations and presents the alternatives for which they can opt for the subjects, being formulated as situations with responses of free choice.

V. LOT OF PARTICIPANTS

The sample of subjects was formed exclusively of 30 women, all of them coming from the urban environment.

VI. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Data processing was possible using the SPSS program [10]. Regarding the administration of the decision-making questionnaire, we drew a parallel between the initial decision maker’s questionnaire and the same questionnaire applied 8 weeks

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later, in order to highlight the significant differences that occurred following the subliminal message projected into the advertising ad.

For the comparison, we used the T test to “assess the significance of the averages of the two sets of scores” [11] Hence, by comparing the two average scores, the decision-making capacity questionnaire initially administered and the final one (the retest), we observe a decrease in the decision-making capacity after seeing the subliminal message, after the retest, the final_decision_capacity.

Thus, between the two tests initially applied and after the visualization of the subliminal message there is a significant difference (t = -9,424, p = 0.000). From this result, we can conclude that subliminal messages do have significant effects on the alteration of decision-making capacity, which confirms the hypothesis that subliminal messages show the expected effect in changing the decisional capacity at least temporarily.

There are many studies and examples that suggest the effectiveness of these messages and the way they manage to change our decision to choose and act unconsciously.

Cooper, Joel; Cooper, Grant [12] (2002) suggests a study that is also based on participants’ thirst of research. Thus, following watching an episode of “The Simpsons” series which contained unique frames of the word “thirsty” or the picture of a Coca-Cola can, they noticed ratings as being positive as far as the effectiveness of subliminal messages is concerned. Thus, the

participants’ thirst increased significantly.

Another significant study is the one from 1982, when John Bargh and Paulo Pietromonaco formed two groups of subjects who were presented a cartoon with Donald Duck. In this program, Donald had to donate blood to the Red Cross, but was refusing to do it. Certain neutral subliminal messages, such as “water” or “people” were inserted to the first group of subjects and to the second group - words as “insult” or “malice”. Subjects from group I were indifferent after watching the movie, while the second group showed indignation, calling him “selfish”, “pumpkin”, etc. As evidence, researchers have reached to the conclusion that subliminal messages have a certain influence in inducing certain attitudes in the behavior of subjects. [13] (Bogdan Ficeac, 2004).

Kunst-Wilson & Zajong [14] (1980) agreed with the supposed influence of subliminal messages on our thoughts and behavior.

The first premise is that both animals and humans easily develop strong preferences for objects that become familiar through repeated exposures. Evidence of the experiment is that these preferences can develop even if exposures are so degraded that their recognition is excluded.

Bornstein, Leone and Galley [15] (1987) found that people shared the same opinions with some individuals in a larger proportion after being subliminally flashed with a picture of the person in question.

CONCLUSIONS Following the obtained results, we can say that subliminal messages significantly influence our consumption behavior as well as the change, at least temporarily, of the decisions we follow.

The fact that our decisions can be unconsciously changed could raise a lot of question marks like: Is that what I really

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wanted to do? Are there factors that can influence me so much that I can change my own beliefs? Under normal circumstances, would I have chosen anything else? It is, as I have already pointed out, a scary concept and a tough reality in which our decisions are unconsciously altered and manipulated without our will. The incorporation of these subliminal messages goes beyond the limits of morality, beyond the freedom of preserving our beliefs, ideas, of making decisions on our own account, and take responsibility for it. Practically, the wishes and actions determined by each of us do not belong to us to a large extent, but have been induced unconsciously, for the personal use of those who use this concept for mean and immoral purposes. Unfortunately, we have all become robots that slowly lose their innovative element, the uniqueness of decisions, the ability to control their own judgment, and to act in accordance with their own convictions. No one should take advantage of this mass manipulation that proves to be harmful from the point of view of the uniqueness of the person. Practically, decision-making power and control over our decisions are stolen, we behave as if we are identical, having the same preferences and acting similarly to our peers.

REFERENCES [1] Abric, Jean-Paul, Communication Psychology, Bucharest, Polirom Publishing House, 2002 [2] Loftus, Elizabeth F.; Klinger, Mark R., Is the Unconscious Smart or Dumb?, American Psychologist. 47 (1992): 761–765.

[3] Brooks, S.J.; Savov V; Allzén E; Benedict C; Fredriksson R; Schiöth HB., Exposure to subliminal arousing stimuli induces robust activation in the amygdala, hippocampus, anterior cingulate, insular cortex and primary visual cortex: a systematic meta-analysis of fMRI studies, Neuro-Image. 59 (3) (2012): 2962–2973 [4] Merikle, P. M., & Daneman, M. (1998), Psychological investigations of unconscious perception, Journal of Consciousness Studies,

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5, pp. 5-18.

[5] Kazdin, E., Encyclopedia of Psychology, Vol. 7, 497-499. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

[6] Anthony J. Marcel 1983, Conscious and Unconscious Perception: Experiments on Visual Masking and Word Recognition, Cognitive Psychology 15: 197-237 [7] Grigore M.C. Communication techniques in social assistance - applications, Craiova, Sitech, p.32, 2016 [8] Danalache, Teodor, Subliminal Messages, https://www.crestinortodox.ro/sanatate-stiinta/ mesajele-subliminale-140393.html [9] CAS++ - Cognitrom Assessment System / coord.: Mircea Miclea,Mihaela Porumb, Paul Cotârle, Monica Albu. – 2nd Ed. rev. - ClujNapoca : ASCR Publishing House, 2009.

[10] Sandu Mihaela, Theoretical and Practical Aspects of the SPSS Program, Constanta, Andrei Saguna Foundation Publishing House, 2012 [11] Rus, M, Sandu, ML, Applied Statistics Elements, revised edition, Bucharest , Pro Universitaria Publishing House, p. 156, 2015 [12] Cooper, Joel; Cooper, Grant (2002).

“Subliminal motivation: A story revisited”.

Journal of Applied Social Psychology. 32 (11): pp. 2213–2227.

[13] Bogdan Ficeac, Manipulation Techniques, 121-122, Nemira Publishing House, 2004 [14] Kunst-Wilson, W.; Zajonc, R., Affective discrimination of stimuli that cannot be recognized, Science. 207 (4430) (1980):557– 558.

[15] Bornstein, R. F., Leone, D. R., & Galley, D. J., The generalizability of subliminal mere exposure effects: Influence of stimuli perceived without awareness on social behavior, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53(6) (1987): 1070

Biography Calin Mariana Floricica

I have a Doctor of Psychology degree and my domains of interest are neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, diagnosis and settlement of social problems and statistics.

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Aspects of social inclusion regarding beneficiaries of international protection residing in Romania Marinela Carmen Grigore, PhD Lecturer Department of Psychology and Social Work Ovidius University of Constanta Romania

ARTICLE INFO

ABSTRACT

Article history: Received 27 February 2018 Received in revised form 27 March Accepted May 5 2018 Available online 20 June 2018 doi: 10.18638/dialogo.2018.4.2.6

The theme addresses one of the pressing problems of Europe in recent years, but also of Romania in particular, the “refugee crisis”, which generated a new approach to immigration policies both at the level of the European Union and of each state.

Due to its geographic location, Romania has always been at the confluence of the major migration routes, but in the second half of 2011, Romania faces an influx of third-country nationals from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Syria who have immigrated illegally to Romania. The increase in the flow of illegal immigration has had its effects both on the migration and asylum system in Romania. As a transit country for immigrants, but also in the desire to align with European norms, Romania supports the international community, which, for humanitarian reasons, has begun to pay attention to the problem of people who do not have or did not have the protection of the states of origin by naming them refugees.

As a new theme, which has not been addressed before, the present paper aims to present both the theoretical and the applicative part an overview of the beneficiaries of a form of international protection in the Dobrogea area by identifying and exposing the problems faced by beneficiaries of some form of international protection as it emerges from the research, as well as the measures applied by the institutions in charge of social integration according to the legal provisions in force.

Keywords: human migration; social inclusion; beneficiaries of international protection, discrimination;

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I. INTRODUCTION

Throughout history, human migration has greatly changed the distribution of the world’s population, people have migrated since ancient times, being one of the basic characteristics of nomad populations since prehistory. The history of human migration begins with Homo erectus, a million years ago, from Africa to Eurasia, followed by Homo sapiens, 150,000 years ago, spread all over Africa, to Australia, Asia and Europe 70,000 years ago.

In the context of globalization, the mobility of the world’s population has increased significantly in the last century, men, women, and children leaving their own countries and choosing to live in others for a variety of reasons. This phenomenon has been called and explained by the term migration, and people have been called migrants. While most migrants have moved to improve their standard of living, join family members, or improve their education, some people have been forced to leave their home countries because of persecution at who have been subjected, being known as refugees. The international community considers refugees to be a distinct category of migrants, people with unique legal status.

Regarding the European regulatory framework, besides the fundamental international legal instruments in the asylum system, such as the 1951 Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Additional Protocol, the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, there are now directives European issues such as: • European Commission Directive No. 85/2011 on minimum standards on procedures in the Member States for granting and withdrawing refugee status and laying down the minimum threshold for

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procedural safeguards for asylum seekers in the EU Member States [1] (http://www.eurlex.europa.eu) • EU Directive No. 33/2013 on revised reception standards for applicants for international protection, which refers to the treatment and living conditions of asylum seekers in the Member States [1] (http:// www.eur-lex.europa.eu) • Directive 95/2011 of the EU on standards for the qualification of thirdcountry nationals or stateless persons as beneficiaries of international protection for the uniform status of refugees and persons eligible for subsidiary protection and for the content of the revised, revised protection, and containing the elements that are relevant to the classification of a person as a refugee and elements for classification to subsidiary protection [1] (http://www.eurlex.europa.eu) • As well, EU asylum legislation has undergone changes and improvements from 2011 until 2013 when the European Common Asylum System is finalized through the establishment of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) but also to improve its current legislative framework .

The National Strategy on Migration for the period 2015-2018 continues the provisions of the previous national strategy with additions to the new internal and international situations by increasing the pressure of the phenomenon of illegal immigration on the Member States of the European Union.

According to him, the goal pursued by public policies on immigration is to manage migration as a set of actions for the allocation and management of public resources to control and coordinate the flow of third-country nationals illegally entering or illegally entering Romania.

Social inclusion is a relatively new term

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introduced in the literature; the reference moment for the introduction of the term was the Lisbon European Council in 2000, which was the occasion for the launch of the Lisbon Strategy. Prior to this time, terms such as integration or insertion were used in the analysis of policies to combat social exclusion.

According to the article 6 lit. cc of Law no. 292/2011 - Social Assistance Law, “The process of social inclusion is the set of multidimensional measures and actions in the areas of social protection, employment, housing, education, health, informationcommunication, mobility, security, justice and culture, social exclusion and ensuring the active participation of people in all the economic, social, cultural and political aspects of society. “[2] (http://www. mmanpis.ro) In terms of the sociological perspective, integration is spoken of as the “processuality of the interactions between the individual or group and the specific or integral social environment through which a functional balance of the parties is achieved”, the integrated being a person, a group of persons, a social category, etc. [3] (Zamfir, C., Vlasceanu, L., 1998, p. 300). This is a longterm, multidimensional process that goes through several political, social stages and, for refugees, has an equal nature and aims at equal opportunities, treatment and equality of outcomes by maximizing minimum standards of living, housing, education and health; increasing the resources of the most disadvantaged or decreasing the resources of the favored ones. [4] (Pop, L.M., 2002, p. 305).

The integration process involves a social change, an observable and verifiable transformation over a certain period of time, at the same time taking place in a geographical area and in a social context.

Thus it can be at the same time: a) dynamic and dual: placing requests

both from the host society and from refugees or beneficiaries of a form of protection from whose perspective integration requires training to adapt to the lifestyles of new societies without their loses its own cultural identity. From the point of view of the host society, it is required to adapt public institutions to changes in the population’s profile, to accept refugees or protection beneficiaries as part of the community, to take measures to facilitate their access to resources and decision-making. b) In the long term: From a psychological perspective, integration often starts with arrival in the country of destination and ends when the refugee or the beneficiary of protection becomes an active member of society from a legal, social, economic, educational and cultural perspective. c) Multidimensional: because it implies both the conditions for integration and participation in all aspects of the economic, social, political and civil life of the host country, as well as the perception of the refugees and beneficiaries of the host country’s acceptance and membership.

In a national context, integration is seen as a dynamic change process, which requires refugees to adapt to a different lifestyle of Romanian society, respecting the norms and values of this country as well as European ones and active participation in the process integration. [5] (Witec, S., 2012, p.283 ) In these circumstances, the objectives of inclusion policies should aim to establish a relationship of responsibility between refugees, beneficiaries of protection, between their communities and civil society through actions at central, governmental and non-governmental level, including: • Active participation in public life according to the legislation in force • Respect for differences and diversity in relation to cultural identity, religious beliefs

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through intercultural education both in school and in the family.

• Self-development and self-support by helping refugees to use their skills and knowledge in the labor market.

The development of an inclusive, tolerant society is a key prerequisite for successful inclusion of refugees and beneficiaries of protection. Once Romania joined the European Union, Romania adopted the European policy to support beneficiaries of a form of international protection in the process of social, economic and cultural inclusion, developing integration programs based on beneficiaries’ needs.

Refugees are foreign citizens who, due to persecution on the grounds of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, belonging to a social group, persecution suffered in the country of origin, was in another country that offered protection. [6] (Drăgoi, V., Mircea, R., 2005, p.6) Although Romania is a significant Christian country, people who choose to migrate and flee on the territory of another state are often of another religion, and besides the language barrier we encounter barriers related to religious customs, tradition, cultural and religion of the respective countries.

But Dobrogea has a peculiar multicultural specificity and an openness to cultural, linguistic and religious diversity, so that these people, adults and children who have gone through multiple traumas to reach a country that offers them protection, end up being integrated and accepted with all the differences and barriers encountered.

And this openness and acceptance to those in need comes also from the ChristianOrthodox specificity that preaches the love of the neighbor, the unconditional love that the Savior Jesus Christ showed by his own example.

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II. OBJECTIVES

The main purpose of this paper is to identify the needs and difficulties encountered in the social inclusion process of beneficiaries of international protection residing in Romania.

III. HYPOTHESES

In the research, the following specific hypotheses were formulated in order to “verify whether changes in the parameters of the collectivity studied have occurred over time or there are significant differences between the studied groups” [7] (Rus, M, Naidin, M, 2010, p. 129).

I1. The linguistic barrier is supposed to be the main obstacle to the social integration of beneficiaries of some form of international protection.

I2. It is assumed there are differences in the discrimination of beneficiaries of some form of international protection at institutional and interpersonal level.

IV. METHODS/INSTRUMENTS

The questionnaire applied for 30 respondents, beneficiaries of a form of international protection residing in Romania, residing in the South-East Region, which formed the sample of research. Each person answered 33 questions with open answers, asking questions about the experiences and obstacles they faced during the process of social inclusion.

V. LOT OF PARTICIPANTS

The research group consists of 30 persons who are beneficiaries of a form of international protection residing in Romania, 16 male and 14 female persons.

The sampling technique used was the

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convenience of choosing the available volunteers [8] (Sântion, Călin, 2014, p. 116) VI. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Analyzing the hypothesis that we assume that the linguistic barrier is the main obstacle in the social integration of beneficiaries of some form of international protection, we graphically represented the relative frequency through the circular diagram, [7] (Rus, M., Sandu M., 2015, p. 210.)

Recognizing that although a large number of respondents attended Romanian language courses, 7% did not know Romanian at all, 48% knew to a very small extent Romanian, 26% to a small extent and only 19% to a large extent.

Figure 1 The degree of participation of the respondents in the Romanian language course

said they did not have problems in the integration process.

Although there is a concern both of state institutions and of non-governmental institutions regarding the organization and accessibility of Romanian language courses addressed to beneficiaries of a form of protection, they fail to acquire an optimal level of linguistic knowledge so as to succeed to be individually informed about the procedures to be followed both in relations with different institutions and in obtaining easy employment on the labor market. The lack of an occupation or a paid job is also reflected in the housing status of the beneficiaries of a form of protection, and they have to use the support of their family or friends either at the competent centers of the state.

Figure 3. Obstacles in the integration process

Figure 2. The level of knowledge of the Romanian language

The linguistic barrier is seen as a barrier to the integration process and the following 32% chart, followed by a 20% job finding, cultural differences 15%, and cooperation with authorities 6%, complicated procedures 6% and lack of financial resources 3%, as opposed to 18% of respondents who

As regards the issue of discrimination, the main discrimination situations in the perception of beneficiaries of an international protection form come into contact with various institutions / authorities, 24% of the respondents responded to this. For data grouping we used graphical representation in percentages of response frequencies [9] (Sîntion, Călin, 2013, pp. 44-49). Due to the minimal level of communication in Romanian, the lack of brochures or information on the various procedural steps necessary for beneficiaries of an international protection,

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drafted in an international language, these people feel discriminated and unintelligible.

Another situation of discrimination is often encountered in terms of integration into the labor market, many of whom are beneficiaries of some form of international protection being limited to access to employment, which is due to the lack of information from employers who are reluctant to hire a foreign person. 16% of respondents said they faced situations of discrimination at the time of their intention to engage. These are followed by situations of discrimination in relations with neighbors 10%, but also in other situations such as doctor / hospital, bank where they are denied opening an account, or at school where children are treated differently only because they have a name different or speak and understand harder Romanian.

However, 39% of the respondents said they did not feel discriminated, which leads us to conclude that discrimination is more likely to be encountered at an institutional level than the level of interpersonal relations, the multiethnic composition specific to Dobrogea, gives the majority population a higher degree of tolerance in accepting and integrating beneficiaries of a form of international protection, members of a different ethnic group.

Figure 4. Aspects of discrimination of respondents

CONCLUSIONS From the analysis of the results obtained

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as a result of the research carried out it can be concluded that for the beneficiaries of an international protection form, the poor knowledge of the Romanian language is the main problem of the integration process, which leads to the impossibility of finding a job.

Nevertheless, Romania remains the main option in terms of definitive determination for a large part of the study participants, due to the tolerant attitude of the population towards this category of people. As it emerges from the research, the main forms of discrimination are those of an institutional nature, most of who claim to have had no negative experience in interacting with the majority population. For example, respondents said they never felt discriminated because they were wearing the Islamic veil.

As a result, in a major Christian country, love for one another outweighs any prejudice, any intention to catalog the other, simply because it is a human being who needs compassion, understanding, and acceptance.

REFERENCES [1] http://www.eur-lex.europa.eu) [2] http://www.mmanpis.ro [3] Zamfir, C., Vlăsceanu, L., 1998, Sociology Dictionary, Bucharest, Babei Publishing House [4] Pop, L.M. 2002, Social Policy Dictionary, Expert Publishing House, 2002 [5] Witec, S., 2012, Refugee Counseling in Dumitraşcu. H., (coord), 2012, in Social Assistance Counseling, Iasi, Polirom Publishing House, p.283.

[6] Drăgoi, V., Mircea, R., 2005, The Integration of Refugees in the Romanian Society-Guide addressed to civil servants, Bucharest, Publishing House of the Ministry of Administration and Interior.

[7] Rus, M, Sandu, M.L, 2015, Applied Statistics Elements, revised edition, Bucharest , Pro

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Universitaria Publishing House, p. 129, 210 [8] Sîntion F., Călin M.F., 2014, Research Methodology Human and Social Sciences, Constanţa, Ovidius University Press, p.116 [9] Sîntion F., Călin M.F., 2013, Statistics in Human and Social Sciences, Constanţa, Ovidius University Press, p.44-49

Biography Grigore Marinela Carmen I am a social worker and psychotherapist, I have a Doctor of Psychology degree, and my areas of interest are related to child care in the family type system, social project management, case management, communication in social work and psychology, experiential psychotherapy

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The Rich Man’s Worry about Tomorrow Fr. Assist. Prof. PhD Nicolae Popescu, PhD Ovidius University of Constanta, Faculty of Theology Constanta, Romania

ARTICLE INFO

ABSTRACT

Article history: Received 14 April 2018 Received in revised form 9 May 2018 Accepted 15 May 2018 Available online 20 June 2018 doi: 10.18638/dialogo.2018.4.2.7

Keywords: Malthus; overpopulation; overconcentration; depopulation; wealth; poverty; resources; control of population; fertility; abortion; eugenics; worry; politics; abuse;

In order to make the word of the Gospel fruitful, men must make their soul a ,,good soil” (Mathew 13:23). To do so, they must cleanse their soul and their mind of all preoccupations that are often destructive because they ,,choke the word making it unfruitful” (Mathew 13:22). First of all, the believer must choose on single Master to serve, his entire life, because ,,you cannot serve both God and money” (Mathew 6:24), then he must seek ,,his kingdom and his righteousness” (Mathew 6:33), and ,,all (material things he would have worried about before), these things will be given to you as well” (Mathew 6:33), as a gift, meaning on top of everything, meaning along God’s kingdom.

Thus we find out from the Gospel of Mathew that the poor and the needy, through ,,the worry about this world” experience the ,,fear of poverty”; just as the rich experience the ,,deceit of wealth” (Mathew 13:22) the ,,fear of the one close by”, which, in situations of ,,overpopulation” can get to ask for, or even steal the rich man’s wealth, obviously only to survive. © 2014 RCDST. All rights reserved.

I. INTRODUCTION

Reverend Malthus brought forward the issue of the ratio between resources and needs[1]. More exactly, if overpopulation is real, then it can be a very grave problem by its planetary proportion. But population growth is not the only source of concern, because affluence and the technological factor are equally important in the analysis of any social impact. From this perspective, the greatest contribution to the current environmental crisis is equally shared by the causes of the overpopulation phobia, respectively, both the billion of poor people,

due to their high fertility, and the billion of rich people, due to their right rate of prodigality.

An unbalance between population and resources can be called overpopulation, depopulation, and in many other ways, and, in the present case, overpopulation can be call poverty as well, the only difference being that in this case the transmitted message is one of the necessities of mutual help, whereas using the term overpopulation turns the attention towards a number of too many men (often unwanted).

Which as a whole can mean: poor people,

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unemployed, old, retired, immigrants, inhabitants of underdeveloped regions, addicts, young adults, exceeding young men, and thus appears not a simple value division between well-being and poverty, but an illicit substitution between choosing the living condition and the individuals who experience it.

Although only suggested by Malthus, the overpopulation theory has become a true ideology, the way the Blackwell Encyclopedia explains it, meaning „a constellation of beliefs and symbolic phrases, through which the world is presented, interpreted and evaluated in a way meant to shape, mobilize, direct, organize and justify certain directions to act and anathematize others.”[2] Currently, no one can certainly say whether overpopulation is a real problem or whether it only serves to shift attention from issues that must be kept hidden. It is often not clear whether we are dealing with overpopulation or depopulation, because the meaning depends on perception, that is on the way the information is presented.

II. Malthus … Darwin … Marx …

Nietzsche…

Each of these personalities was specifically preoccupied by social issues.

In 1798 Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus impressed by the poverty of most of the population in England, analyzing the causes of poverty, reached the conclusion that it is caused by a natural law, according to which the population grows geometrically (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, …), whereas the means of subsistence only grow arithmetically (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, …), which in time would inevitably lead to a disequilibrium.

Suggested by Malthus as a solution against a possible demographic disequilibrium, control of population, in itself, did not contain any evil intention, since, in his opinion, this control could

have led to reducing poverty and the level of human degradation. The only way out of the poverty trap (or demographic trap, the Malthusian one) in which population growth is stopped only by repressive brakes (poverty, in all its shapes and forms) had to be using the preventive brake (according to Malthus, delaying marriage and premarriage abstinence). Reverend Malthus presented these ideas in an Essay on the principle of population[3].

The trouble is that Malthus also mentions in an uninspired way certain observations drawn from the works he had previously studied, observations which amplify the state of fear of the rich. Thus, he says: ,,In all ages, overpopulation determines the increase in the savages’ natural tendency to war, and the hostilities arising from this kind of aggression keep on fueling plundering, long after the initial conflict is over, the one that pushed them to aggression”.[4] These opinions of Malthus’ had an immediate success among Europe’s aristocracy, amazed and alarmed by the „power of the people” proven during the American and French revolutions.

However, according to Malthus’ very words ,,the theory of overpopulation” is nothing but a series of presuppositions, probabilities and conditional ideas that cannot be taken into consideration and applied in a mechanical manner. Thus:,,But to make the argument more general and less interrupted by the partial views of emigration, let us take the whole world.

Taking the population of the world at any number, a thousand million, for instance, the human species would increase in the ratio of: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, and the subsistence as: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. In two centuries the population would be to the subsistence as 256 to 9, in three centuries 4096 to 13 and in two thousand years, the difference would be almost incalculable.

No limits whatever are placed to the

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productions of the earth. They may increase forever and be greater than any assignable quantity. Yet, the power of population being a power of superior order, the increase of the human species can only be kept commensurate to the increase of the means of subsistence by the constant operation of the strong law of necessity, acting as a check upon the greater power”. [5] It’s true that in 1803, Malthus modified his theory a little, but the damage had already been done. Thus, after publishing his short and simplistic theory in the first edition of his essay and after having time and,, willingness” to take into consideration both the facts and the theory, he ended up concluding that „Human beings are very different from flies and mice. When they face a limit situation, people can alter their behavior to adapt to these limitations”[6].

In other words, he takes back and repaints the incumbency of an evolution towards a demographic disaster.

But it was of no use since his ideas served as a fundament for the political notion of overpopulation that the planet could no longer feed, and of a society that would then know severe social conflicts. And, ,,if Malthus, as a true Christian theologian, recommended „ moral abstinence” – celibacy, delaying marriage and sexual abstinence – in the post-war period they recommended family planning and limiting the number of births, using contraception and abortion, the so-called neo-Malthusian means, which Malthus never accepted nonetheless”.[7] Even though Malthus’s prediction has not come true[8], his idea of control of population was so powerful that is served as the basis for Charles Darwin’s natural selection theory, and for the class theory conceived by the fathers of Marxism - Leninism, K. Marx and Fr. Engels.

Nowadays, also on the basis of Malthus’s ideas, an entire conception of the world

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has taken shape, rather an ideological than a philosophical one: eugenics. And many philosophy lovers, not necessarily evil, such as Friedrich Nietzsche, created philosophical systems centered on the Superman, the result of the control of population and of natural selection within the human species.

Therefore, Malthus’s and Nietzsche’s ideas were confiscated and used fraudulently by the Nazi, to ,,justify” their policy of physical extermination of the Jews, the gypsy, of sexual minorities and even of the disabled people.

A. Is overpopulation a demographic phobia?

Nowadays it is more and more evident that Malthus’s prediction has not come true because of specific natural correction mechanisms. Thus, there are various obstacles for the overpopulation of the world, such as famine, epidemics, poverty, etc., and „ with these encouragements to the population for early attachments and every cause of depopulation removed, the numbers would necessarily increase faster than in any society that has ever been known”.[9] It is true that between 1800 and 2000, there has been a truly explosive population growth. The explanation might lie in the growth in the quality of living and the technological innovations, the pharmaceutical industry and so on. In Nicholas Eberstadt’s graphic presentation, this growth occurred not because people started to breed like rabbits, but rather because they stopped dying like flies.

At first glimpse, overpopulation seems to be an exceeding population density in relation with a certain survival optimum.

That is why we consider overpopulation as a quality term. Theoretically speaking, we can speak about absolute overpopulation (generalized poverty) when we indicate a planetary disequilibrium and about relative overpopulation (overconcentration) when

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we indicate the same disequilibrium but measured only for a country, a region, a location, or a homogeneous group of people/humans taken as a benchmark.

B. Is the phobia of overpopulation justified,

or is it just a pretext and an excuse?

Undoubtedly, humans are the main resource of the planet, and as the future implies a constant growth of the quality of life, analysts foresee a continuous development of the population, on the basis of the innovations in all the fields of activity. Consequently, overpopulation can be alarming through its effects but only in its relation with certain realities. Thus, if we notice that the human habitat covers only 1% of the Earth’s surface, it is hard to believe that there would be an overpopulation of the planet, or that it would be worth worrying about an evolution towards this situation. On the other hand, media data abounds in catastrophes both demographic and about the resources of the planet.

Detailed empirical studies invalidate the direct correlation between demographic changes and national and international political conflicts; most conflicts that coincide with population growth have been reduced over the last century; the competition over resources has instead brought cooperation between the exciting parts and conflicts can be associated with population growths only where government incapacity or inflexible policies mediate them.

The development of modern technology and pharmacology comes to meet the general-human hopes to avoid trouble, at unprecedented levels. We take modern comfort for granted, and we barely realize how addicted to it we are.[10] It is true; studies show that the planet can produce food both for the current and for the future population. And it is not surprising, as Randy Alcorn notices, that

famine appears because of a combination of several factors, which include natural disasters, wars, the lack of technology, the irresponsible use of resources, waste, greed, the inefficiency of government, a destructive mentality promoted by society and an inappropriate distribution of food.

Amartya Sen (winner of the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences in 1998), demonstrated that the famine episodes of the last century were not the result of the overpopulation or of the scarcity of food but the result of blocking the access to these because of social and economic causes. It promoted the capability, that is someone’s real possibility to live life the way they want, which implies both individual aptitudes and capacities, and access to resources, social, cultural and environmental conditions necessary to accomplish the respective aspirations.

Jacqueline Kasun, a professor of Economics at the Californian university of Humboldt, USA, shows in a vast argumentative paper,[10] that indeed the policy of the control of the world population is officially embraced by the leadership of America and by most international organisms, such as the World Bank, the World Health Organization, the UN, UNESCO etc. The numerous opinions issued by politicians who claim almost the same things in the public space fully contribute to this conviction. Thus: ,,In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill… But, sometimes, when making them the enemy, we mistake symptoms for causes. All these dangers are caused by human intervention, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy then, is humanity itself.”[12] However, starvation in the world is not because of a real lack of food.

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This makes us understand that the real problem nowadays is not (absolute) overpopulation, but rather decreasing population, as well as unequal distribution of resources. To be precise, the real problem is not the local overconcentration (relative overpopulation), but the drastic decrease of fertility, at a general, even planetary level. In this respect, Francis Fukuyama pleads for the urgency and the possibilities of regulation: ,,In order to prevent the uncontrolled side-slip regarding the right to life and the principle of autonomy, analysts claim that political regulatory intervention is categorically a necessity, but its possibilities are already undermined by the massive erosion of the very self-restraint and resignation spirit that has always made regulatory social consensus possible[13].

C. Substantiated by nothing, the theory of

overpopulation is in fact a pretext

and a justification for the anti-social policy led by certain governments. That is because in the last decades a self-sufficient society has been created, which is free to create and to transform itself[14] and had gradually eliminated the transcendental in our everyday life.

Thus, secular humanists deny the fact that there is a Creator and that there are laws made by God that govern the world. Therefore, there must be no law to regulate morality, and any action cannot be absolutely good or bad. And man, not being God’s creation has no purpose and has the right to be free and live his own life as he pleases. Everyone decides in their conscience what is right and what is wrong, according to the situation.

Nowadays, they say that God was killed by nihilism and we are the witnesses of „a society based on the market and on the best product. The consequence of such a social organization is a society without family and

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without children: a singles society”[15] in which selfishness and personal interest are worth more than common interest, in a society based upon the individual and not the person.

Absolute autonomy sees man as a superior (evolved) animal, endowed with superior intelligence, which can be used to enhance the human race. So that ,,modern genetics allows us to glimpse at the future, but also give us the possibility to change it. This is the result of the last 100 years of research, and the next 100 years have just begun!”[16] Based upon this reasoning, secular humanists favor abortion, euthanasia and genetic engineering as means to reach this goal. Man is considered autonomous, that is able to elaborate his own ethical code. Man’s wellbeing is the supreme value, him being allowed to do anything to be happy. And the world of tomorrow could be founded on the new bio-technologies applied to man not just to cure him, but to enhance him, to create a „perfect” mankind. In this world genetic manipulation and nanotechnology will change our metabolism and even our chemical composition[17].

But the great dream will not be to enhance our own characteristics using genetic manipulation or any other biotechnologies, but to create children as we please[18], copies with „qualities” or flaws previously and voluntarily chosen.

Under these circumstances social relations will profoundly change the significance of the family and of the state that will have to decide whether it will allow or not each and every individual to choose how their own children will be „created”, even if: ,,No simple moral algorithm could indicate how such equilibrium should be approached in making public policy decisions”[19].

Reducing population already done by various viruses, illnesses, diseases, epidemics, vaccines and by introducing

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cancer inducing additives in our food, by abortion, and contraceptive devices, by sterilization and other ,,measures” has not made the world a better place.

Indeed, overpopulation is a big issue, but only under the current conditions of resource distribution. If these conditions were to change, the problem might disappear forever. But, there is no single solution, but a series of competing or complementary solutions, each having their advantages and disadvantages. Thus: 1) artificially decreasing the world population through family planning. We simply reduce the number of people so that those who are still alive lead a better life. School or medical programs of sexual education are only the principal ideological means to reduce population. Thus, contraception is the basic lesson in sexual education: „ Children must be taught about the necessity of responsible and mature decisions on stabilizing population through birth control since their school years”.[20] 2). A race between population growth and technology efficiency, but this solution involves huge investments in research and education, sacrificing immediate benefits to long-term benefits and a severe competition among inventors who are supposed to generate new inventions, to be freely shared with everybody in order to have a greater impact.

It is hard to believe, not to mention to put into practice. 3). The ultimate solution would be moderation[21]; trying to live on less resources (to the necessary minimum), to be more generous, work harder, share what we have with those who do not have what they need and to wish not to develop to the detriment of others. It would be the ideal solution, but apparently it does not work at all as people tend to make generosity gestures not even to the close ones, least to the other inhabitants of the planet.

So, there is no solution, because our problem springs from a premise that makes

it unsolvable: they only want to change the world, without changing people’s mentality.

III. The absolutism of matter.

For Christians, the issue of overpopulation refers to the relation between the secular humanist approach and the Jewish-Christian one, and the demographic threat is seen, either as one of the biggest current problems of the world, or as another aberration of those who believe in their own strengths, completely forgetting about the divine presence and providence.

The most worrying effect of overpopulation, that is the difficulty in ensuring the subsistence of mankind, is a false one, because in reality it is in God’s attention. And issues such as ,,overpopulation” are part of the ordinary man’s pains. A believer knows that ,,the Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing” (Psalm 23:1). Therefore, ,,resources” of any kind, including food are God’s gift for all men, but, first of all for Christians. In this respect, there is no limit to population growth for Christians, that is, there are no problems associated with overpopulation.

Let us add the fact that any measure against the assumed overpopulation implies that is necessary to kill people in order to solve the situation, and human happiness and fulfillment can be found by disposing of those who break the balance. But, this is the mentality that feeds prostitution, abortion and euthanasia, as well as the control of population. The other one (the Christian Neighbor) is seen by the adversaries of the Jewish-Christians as a threat that need to be eliminated, and not as an opportunity to give oneself out of love, so that the self and the other one can grow together. And this even under overconcentration conditions where: ,,The overcrowding of human masses in large modern cities is to blame for our incapacity to perceive our neighbor’s face

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in the phantasmagoria of the ever-changing faces that overlap and fade away”.[22] That is why, no matter how putting an end to life is motivated, it will always be a crime. ,,Because they were created in the image of God, human beings possess real dignity and impose special respect.

That is why everything that is committed against human nature is committed, to a certain extent, against God’s will. (...) The contemporary secularized society gives various justifications to abortion, medical and social most of the time. Existing in this world, the Church is not unrealistic, but it cannot be superficial either when it comes to the reasons regarding the tendencies to justify abortion”[23].

It is increasingly stated today that man was created a vegetarian[24] and authorized to rule over God’s Creation, and this is true. But, God created mankind ,,in his own image” (Genesis 1:27), so this ruling implies both God’s love and care for His creation.[25] Obviously, this must not be understood in the sense of the industrial revolution, which generated capitalism, then hyper-technology and the present day civilization[26].

In fact, this is how the overpopulation anxiety was fueled, as a fear of an atheist soul, as a fight with one’s own demons. A Christian knows that the world cannot be abandoned by God, and left to the devil as a broken toy. But an atheist can only increasingly fear for his biological life, watching the recent calamities, but also the global economic, political and social changes. In this context, people claim more and more that overpopulation, associated with the resource deficit, would generate stress that would compulsory generate a high level of social aggressiveness. Stress associated with this assumed violence is in fact the real problem whose solution is seen in eliminating the other one.

In a much more stressful situation, Christ

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had Himself killed, just as Christians follow His example and do the same thing. Why? Because it is not fear and desperation that should rule our life, but love and trust.

Maybe people, deceived and supported

by Satan, have eliminated self-devotion changing the commandment of loving your neighbor into the command of eliminating your neighbor. And thus, in a complete pharisaic manner, through the control of the population as a rational solution to problems connected to overpopulation, Christian self-devotion (1 Corinthians 11:24) is replaced by the pharisaic elimination of the neighbor (Luke 18:11-12).

Even so, no matter how badly men would use their freedom, often against nature, God will never desert people, because even ,,If we are faithless, He remains faithful …”

(2 Timothy 2:13). And no matter how much man would fight natural laws through his scientific discoveries, never will the world be empty of God’s grace, without which life would not be possible, „for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

The justification of the supporters of the population control is not a mathematical one, but a distorted anthropology on the human species, a view according to which, the human species has nothing special compared to other creatures, and any decision regarding our wellbeing implies on the one hand taking into account the wellbeing of the „other” animals, while others see men as inferior to animals, a sort of cancer of the earth, a view that attacks the Jewish-Christian ideas of man’s supremacy, considered to be ideas that provide the philosophical basis for the human destructivity as they intend to make man’s ruling of nature a holy thing.[27] A very important aspect of the future society could be religion, just as it has been for

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millennia. And if we make a „demographic” and „social” analysis, we will probably be able to anticipate which religion will have the highest number of followers, but, finally, there is no certainty upon the religious or profane future of this democratic majority.

Others, in exchange, believe there will be a post-human world that: It will very mush resemble the current one – free, correct, prosperous, protective and compassionate – but enhanced with more efficient therapies, with a greater longevity and, maybe, with a higher intelligence level. Post-human world could, however, be a more hierarchical and a more competitive environment than the current one, characterized by a higher conflict level; the concept of „ common humanity”, known to everyone nowadays, could become memory: introducing in the human genetic inheritance genes belonging to many other diverse species could even make us no longer know for sure what a human being is. We could end up living for more than 100 years, impatiently waiting for our death, locked in an asylum. Or we might find ourselves facing a scenario similar Huxley’s world, a friendly tyranny in which everybody is healthy and happy, but no one remembers the meaning of the words hope, fear or fight anymore[28].

Formally, many interpreters make a difference between the attitude of the Old Testament, invoking a Jewish view[29], and the attitude of the New Testament having a Christian view on population. It is true, in the Old Testament there are events in which God does justice and a large number of people die for their sins. Such events include the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Flood and the Tower of Babel, then the Exodus and the Canaan. The blessing and the curse presented by Leviticus (Leviticus 26:13-35) are highly suggestive. Also in the Old Testament we can find prophecies through which God announce the decrease (after justice is done) of the population: ,,I will make people scarcer than pure gold,

more rare than the gold of Ophir” (Isaiah 13:12).

But no matter how we interpret the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament, these episodes cannot be considered measures to control the population.[30] On the contrary, we have all the reasons to consider them measure to support population, even though they are not always as explicit as the gradual conquest of Canaan, where it is said: ,,But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.” (Exodus 23:29-30). This pro-life attitude is explicitly and widely, though formally, presented in the Holy scriptures of the New Testament and it seems different from the Jewish view in the Old Testament and is characterized the love for the neighbor through fasting, abstinence and pro-creation sexuality, which are part of the orthodox solutions that for two thousand years have been implicitly performed as a way of life and counteract the assumed overpopulation, before it has even existed as a problem.

Survival can easily be obtained, but, the passions of the contemporary man (lack of faith, pride, selfishness, indulgence, cruelty and lack of compassion – in a word, lack of love), have made him forget which things are absolutely necessary and which are unnecessary, and no longer make the difference between survival and waste.

Unlike him, the peasant, less dependent on comfort and technology, and more connected to land and religion, knows too well what the entire civilized mankind seems to have forgotten, meaning that the planet’s biological resources are not inexhaustible.

[31] Undoubtedly, problems never cease to appear in this world, because not everybody lives the Christian way. But Christians

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are convinced that everything is in God’s hands and any problem that might appear will effectively be solved upon the Second Coming, when there will be a new heaven and a new earth.

BIOGRAPHY Born on 09/01/1977.

A t t e n t e d the Theological Seminary (19921997), Faculty of Theology (19972001) and Faculty of Law (2000-2005), graduated from the same faculty and graduated level courses (Theology - 20012002) and (Law - 2003-2004).

Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Theology, „Ovidius” University of Constanta since 2007.

Published three works along with Pr. Prof.

Emilian Corniţescu, PhD,: „Old Testament and timeliness” and „The Old Testament - cultural and social moral religious issues” at the Europolis Publishing House in Constanta in 2008, and „Biblical Studies” at the Archdiocese of Tomis Publishing House in 2015, as well as other books, studies and articles.

PhD in Theology since 27/11/2009.

References [1]

[2]

[3]

Thomas Robert Malthus, translated by Victor Vasiloiu and Elena Angelescu, Eseu asupra principiului populației (An Essay on the Principle of Population), Editura Științifică, 1992, p. 19-20.

Enciclopedia Blackwell a gândirii politice (The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Political Thought), David Miller (coord.), Ed. Humanitas, Bucureşti, 2000, p. 366.

His main work is An Essay on the Principle

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of Population, as it Affects the Future Improvement of Society (1789, 1802); translated and adapted, Th. R. Malthus, op. cit.

[4] A Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean, performed in the Tears 1796, 1797, 1798, in the Ship Duff, commanded

by Captain James Wilson. Compiled from Journals of the Officers and the Missionaries.

London, 1799, p. 225.

[5] Th. R. Malthus, op. cit., p. 16.

[6] Julian Simon, Ultima Resursă (The Ultimate Resource), Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981, p.177.

[7] Professor Vladimir Trebici, PhD, Malthus – Astăzi. Studiu introductiv (Malthus – Today.

Introductive Study), in Th. R. Malthus, op. cit., p. 7.

[8] ,,Interpreters agree that the statisticmathematic part of Malthus’s work is relatively modest. The most important fact is that we owe it to Malthus that he explicitly formulated the „demographic and economic” correlation, only later developed in the 1960s-1980s in demography”. Cf. Prof. Vladimir Trebici, PhD, Malthus-Astăzi. Studiu introductiv (Malthus-Today. Introductive Study), in Th. R. Malthus, op. cit., p. 7.

[9] Th. R. Malthus, op. cit., p. 17.

[10] Konrad Lorenz, Cele opt păcate capitale ale omenirii civilizate (Civilized Man’s Eight Deadly Sins), translated by Vasile V. Poenaru, Ed. Humanitas, 2006, p. 45.

[11] Jacqueline Kasun, Războiul împotriva populaţiei (The Unjust War against Population), Ed. Pro Vita, 2008.

[12] Alexander King, Bertrand Schneider – Founder and secretary of the Club of Rome, Prima revoluţie globală (The First Global Revolution), 1991, p. 104-105.

[13] Fukuyama’s plea for urgency and the regulating possibilities is remarkable, Cf. Francis Fukuyama, Viitorul nostru postuman.

Consecinţele revoluţiei biotehnologice (Our Post human Future. Consequences of a Biotechnology Revolution), Ed. Humanitas, Bucureşti, 2004, especially part 3 that furthers his analyses of the Marea ruptură.

Natura umană şi refacerea ordinii sociale (The Great Disruption. Human Nature and the Reconstruction of the Social Order),

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Ed. Humanitas, Bucureşti, 2002. In spite of these, the chances to succeed seem to depend more on the intervention of certain central institutions, exposed to the totalitarian drift, while the masses are moving away from responsibilities that ask for personal sacrifices.

Cf. Gilles Lipovetsky, Amurgul datoriei. Etică nedureroasă a noilor timpuri democratice (The Twighlight of the Duty), Ed. Babel, Bucureşti, 1996.

[14] „The true alternative is not between evolution and creation, but between the vision of a world in evolution, dependent on God according to His plan and the vision of a selfsufficient world, capable of creating itself and of transforming itself because of some purely immanent events” – Ch. Darwin, L’origine dell’uomo (The Descent of Man), Grandi Tascabili Economici Newton, Roma 1995, p.

105.

[15] Cf. P. Ferri, Bioetica, Ambiente e Salute.

Alla ricerca di un possibile modello di salute, Monte Università Parma, Parma, 2007, p. 111.

[16] M. Brookes, La genetic (Genetics), Scienza, Trieste 2001, p. 189.

[17] Cf. G. Stock, Riprogettare gli esseri umani, Orme, Milano 2005, p. 51.

[18] Cf. Ibidem, p. 156.

[19] R. Shweder, Genetic and human behavior II. Philosophical and Ethical Issues, in S.G. Post, Encyclopedia of Bioethics, Macmillan, New York 20043, p. 978-984, 984.

[20] Arcata School District Family Life, Life/ Sex Education Curriculum Guide Arcata, California, June 1976.

[21] As Malthus recommends when he mentions the measures of the Chinese emperor who wants to ensure the welfare of his subjects. Cf. Th. R. Malthus, op. cit., p. 93.

[22] Konrad Lorenz, op. cit., p. 19.

[23] Comisia de bioetică a Bisericii Ortodoxe Române (B.O.R.) (The Bio-Ethics Commission of the Romanian Orthodox Church). Sectorul Biserica și Societatea al Patriarhiei Române: Avortul, Eutanasia, Transplantul (Church and Society Sector of the Romanian Patriarchate: Abortion, Euthanasia, Transplant) - 15-17 June 2004.

(Text approved by the HOLY SINOD in the 15-17 June 2004 session).

Nita M., Ecologia văzută prin ochii credinței în Dumnezeu (Ecology Seen through the Eyes of the Faith in God), Editura Mitropolia Olteniei, Craiova, 2005, p. 130-141.

[25] Mihălcescu-Târgovișteanu, I. (Bishop), Catehismul creștinului ortodox (The Catechism of the Orthodox Christian), Editura Arhiepiscopiei Bucureștilor, Secția culturală, Biblioteca Apostolul, Bucuresti, 1938.

[26] Zizioulas, J., Preserving God’s Creation: Lectures on Theology and Ecology, King’s Theological Review, volume 12, no. 1, 1989, p. 4.

[27] A presentation of the procreation medical assistance techniques by Vasile Astărăstoaie and Ortansa Stoica (coord.), Genetică versus bioetică (Genetics versus Bioethics), Ed. Polirom, Iaşi, 2002, ch. V; from an orthodox point of view previous debates are sintetized

by Florin Puşcaş, Procreaţia clinic asistată în teologia „diasporei” ortodoxe (Clinically Assisted Procreation in the Orthodox “Diaspora” Theology), „Revista Teologică” (Theological Review), 1/1998, pp. 73-102.

[28] F. Fukuyama, L’uomo oltre l’uomo. Le conseguenze della rivoluzione biotecnologica, Mondadori, Milano 2002, p. 297.

[29] Cosmin Tudor CIOCAN, “The Concept of the ‘Elected’ People in all three Abrahamic religious movements”, in “The Phenomenon of Migration. Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives” Proceedings of Harvard Square Symposium, 2016 August. Cambridge, MA: The Scientific Press, U.S.A. 2016, vol. 2, pp. 282-303.

ISBN 978-1-945298-03-5 (e–version); 978-1-945298-04-2 (paperback); www. scientificpress.org/9781945298035.htm; [30] Cosmin Tudor CIOCAN, ”Congruence of rituals and theatre,” Proceedings DIALOGO (DIALOGO - The 2nd Virtual International Conference on the Dialogue between Science and Theology), DOI: 10.18638/ dialogo.2015.2.1.4, ISBN: 978-80-554-11316, ISSN: 2393-1744, vol. 2,issue 1,pp. 42--53, 2015 [31] Konrad Lorenz, Cele opt păcate capitale ale omenirii civilizate (Civilized Man’s Eight Deadly Sins), translated by Vasile V. Poenaru, Ed. Humanitas, 2006, p. 25.

[24]

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This paper was presented in the

The Virtual International Conference on the Dialogue between Science and Theology. (DIALOGO-CONF 2018 ORI)

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held online, on the Journal’s website, from MAY 19 - 26, 2018

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Obesity and Fast-Food 1. Any Docu-Axelerad, PhD

2. Daniel Docu-Axelerad, PhD

Ovidius University of Constanta, Department of General Medicine Constanta, Romania

Ovidius University of Constanta, FEFS, Kinethoteraphy Department Constanta, Romania

3. Cosmin Tudor Ciocan, PhD Ovidius University of Constanta, Faculty of Theology Romania

ARTICLE INFO

ABSTRACT

Article history: Received 3 May 2018 Received in revised form 9 May 2018 Accepted 15 May 2018 Available online 20 June 2018 doi: 10.18638/dialogo.2018.4.2.8

Keywords:

Obesity is one of the most significant public health challenges and becomes a public health problem. Consumption of fast-food, which have high energy densities and glycemic loads, and expose customers to excessive portion size, is frequently associated with weight gain, therefore, it is hypothesized that relative availability of fast-food is a risk for obesity.

obesity; fast-food restaurant; Body Mass Index;

© 2014 RCDST. All rights reserved.

I. INTRODUCTION

In 21st century, obesity has been one of the most significant public health challenges and in most nations has become a public health problem. Tragically, adult obesity is more common globally than under-nutrition.

Overweight and obesity are categorized according to individual body mass index

(BMI), which is calculated as weight (Kg) divided by height (m2). The World Health Organisation (WHO) defined overweight as 30 >BMI ≥ 25 (kg/m2) and obese as BMI ≥ 30 ( kg/m2).[1] According to the WHO (2014), there are around 2 billion adults overweight, of those 670 million are considered to be affected by

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eISSN: 2393-1744, cdISSN: 2392-9928 printISSN: 2457-9297, ISSN-L 2392-9928 ISBN 978-80-554-1466-9

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obesity and 98 million severely affected by obesity ( BMI ≥ 35 kg/ m2 ).

II. Material and method:

We analized correlation between obesity, fast-food and urban population, especially in young persons with declining physical labor especial in metropolitan area.

III. Discussion and results:

We aim to identify risk factors for cardio and cerebrovascular disease, and correlation with increasing population in the specific area, with bad dietary habits and inactivity.

Since the 1980s its prevalence has tripled in many countries of the WHO European Region, and the numbers of those affected continue to rise at an alarming rate.

In the United States, the prevalence of obesity has increased dramatically during the past few decades and is now a major health concern. [2] According to „ Prevalence of Obesity Among Adults and Youth: United States, 2011-2014”, 36 % American adults and 17 % of the American youth is obese.[3] Obesity is caused by a multitude factor contributing to the increased energy consumption and decreased energy expenditure, including: Declining levels of physical labor as populations move from rural to urban settings and abandon walking in favor of driving, labor-saving devices in the home, and the replacement of active sport and play by television and computer games; Higher levels of food consumption or an increase in energy density (particularly fat content) of the food we eat.

Consumption of meals eaten away from home, especially from fast-food restaurants, has increased in the United States since the 1970s.[4-6]

Eating out may lead to overconsumption and increase the risk of obesity in part because of larger portion size, high-energydense foods, and increased variety and preferred taste of foods.[7-9] Also, the increasing availability of fastfood restaurants, bars, and convenience stores, can adversely affect dietary patterns, especially among less health conscious individuals.[10-12] There is some evidence that there are more “fast food” restaurants in geographic areas in which obesity prevalence is high (e.g. low-income areas).[13] Many factors, including behavioral, environmental, cultural and socioeconomic influences, affect people’s food choice.

These choices, which affect the balance of energy intake, combined with genetic and metabolic factors, determine body weight and composition.[14] Particularly, fast-food consumption has been associated with poor diet quality and adverse dietary factors related to obesity, including higher intakes of calories, salt, fat, saturated fat, sugar-sweetened drinks.[1516] Most fast-foods contain substantially fewer vitamins and minerals such as vitamin A, carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E, calcium, magnesium, and zinc.

Some studies have reported that sodium intake was associated with elevated systolic blood pressure and diastolic pressure both among adults [17-22] and children [23-25].

Scientists claim that fast- food causes obesity by encouraging the sense of intentional overeating. A close explanation to the claim made by scientist explains that fast-foods are foods with 150 % more of highdensity energy than any other traditional meal. High-density foods, tend to compel people to intake more calories than needed by the body.

The unhealthy ingredients of fast- food

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are also available in large portion sizes which have grown parallel with the average body weight of a person from the 70s to date.

One of the main reasons people cannot stop eating fast-food is its low cost. As per a research conducted by the University of Washington, a diet containing 2000 calories of fast-food costs much less than a diet with 2000 calories of healthy food.

In the USA, obesity has taken the shape of an epidemic and is leading to major health complications such as premature deaths and illnesses like heart diseases, diabetes, fatty liver, arthritis, gallbladder diseases and joint disorders.

Also, in the obese and overweight population, the mortality rates are elevated.

Data from the longitudinal Framingham Heart Study found a six to seven-year decrease in life expectancy for overweight individuals over the age of 40. [26] Excess adiposity can be detrimental to psychological and emotional well-being, lowering an individual’s overall quality of life.[27] Moreover, obese and overweight individuals tend to face discrimination regarding employment, education, healthcare and wages. [28-29] Researchers have shown a correlation between fast-food, weight gain and insulin resistance. Participants in the „ 15- year study shows strong link between fast food, obesity and insulin persistance” who consumed fast-food two or more times a week gained approximately 10 more pounds and had twice as great increase in insulin resistance in the 15 year period than participants who consumed fast-food less than once per week.[30] Fast-food frequency was lowest for white women ( about 1.3 times per week) compared with the other ethnic and gender groups ( about twice a week). Frequency was higher in African-Americans than in whites and in men than in women for every

Session 1. OverPopulation and its effects

examination year.[31] In a study conducted by the University of California at Berkeley, it was found that children who had easy access to places where fast-food was sold were at increased risk to obesity. [38] If a fast-food restaurant was within a tenth of a mile from a school, the risk of obesity among ninth graders increased by 5.2 percent.

World Health Organization (WHO) has labelled childhood obesity as one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century. According to WHO, in 2010, there are an estimated 42 million children under five years old who are overweight, and this figure is increasing at an alarming rate.31 In 2007-2008, in Australia, around eight percent of children were estimated to be obese and 17 percent overweight.[32] Children who are overweight or obese are likely to grow into obese adults who risk developing a number of chronic diseases, such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. [33] An increasing number of overseas findings agree that television commercials for sweets, snacks and fast-food are the mainstays of advertising which target children.[34] According to a study by the American Kaiser Family Foundation, half of all advertising time on children’s television is devoted to food advertising, none of this includes advertisements for vegetables or fruits.[35] A Children’s Food Campaign and a British Heart Foundation concluded that food marketing to children is almost always for unhealthy products and this plays an essential role in encouraging unhealthy eating habits which are likely to continue into adulthood.[36] A study that was just published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition didn’t find that fast-food consumption in children was independently associated with being

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overweight or obese. [37] Conclusion: In many countries, obesity caused by fast food has increased because of the easy availability of fast food in the grocery shops, gas stations and dispensers everywhere. So it is difficult to escape from the lure of these delicious advertisements and showcases.

The rapid increase in obesity prevalence coupled with the expanding fast-food industry has caused many to posit a potential link between the two, in addition to causing great public health concern.

BIBLIOGRAPHY [1] [2]

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WHO. Obesity and overweight. 2006.

The Surgeon General’ s call to action to prevent and decrease overweight and obesity.

Rockville (MD) : Office of the Surgeon General; 2001.

NCHS Data Brief No 219, November 2015 ( National Center for Health Statistics) Lin BH, Frazão E, Guthrie J. Away-fromhome foods increasingly important to quality of American diet. USDA Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 749. Economic Research Service; 1999. http://www.ers. usda. gov/Publications/AIB749/. Accessed March 23, 2011.

Guthrie JF, Lin BH, Frazão E. Role of food prepared away from home in the American diet, 1977-78 versus 1994-96: changes and consequences. J Nutr Educ Behav 2002; 34(3):140-50.

Stewart H, Blisard N, Bhuyan S, Nayga RM Jr. The demand for food away from home: full-service or fast food? Agricultural Economic Report No. 829. US Department of Agriculture; 2004. http://www.ers. usda.gov/ Publications/AER829/. Accessed March 23, 2011.

Ledikwe JH, Ello-Martin JA, Rolls BJ. Portion sizes and the obesity epidemic. J Nutr 2005;135 (4):905-9 Prentice AM, Jebb SA. Fast foods, energy

density and obesity:a possible mechanistic link.Obes Rev 2003; 4 (4):187-94 [9] Glanz K, Basil M, Maibach E, Goldberg J, Snyder D. Why Americans eat what they do: taste, nutrition, cost, convenience, and wight control as influences on food consumption. J Am Diet Assoc 1998; 98 (10):1118-26 [10] Feng J, Glass TA, Curriero FC, Stewart WF, Schwartz BS. The built environment andobesity: A systematic review of the epidemiologic evidence.

Health Place.2010;16(2):175-90.

[11] Booth KM, Pinkston MM, Poston WS. Obesity and the built environment. J Am DietAssoc. 2005;105(5 Suppl 1):S110-7.

[12] Papas MA, Alberg AJ, Ewing R, Helzlsouer KJ, Gary TL, Klassen AC. The built environment and obesity. Epidemiol Rev. 2007;29:129-43.

[13] Spigelman BM , Flier JS. Obesity and the regulation of energy balance. Cell 2001;104 (4) : 531-43 [14] Reidpath DD, Burns C, Garrard J, Mahoney M, Townsend M: An ecological study of the relationship between social and environmental determinants of obesity. Health Place. 2002, 8 (2): 141-145. 10.1016/S1353-8292(01)000284.

[15] Bowman SA, Vinyard BT.Fast food consumption of US adults: impact on energy and nutrient intakes and overweight status.J Am Coll Nutr 2004;23(2):163—8 [16] Paeratakul S, Ferdinand DP, Champagne CM, Ryan DH, Bray GA. Fast food consumption among US adults and children: dietary and nutrient intake profile. J Am Diet Assoc 2003;103 (10):1332-8 [17] De Santo NG. Reduction of sodium intake is a prerequisite for preventing and curing high blood pressure in hypertensive patients second part: guidelines. Curr Hypertens Rev. 2014;10(2):77–80.

[18] Chateau-Degat ML, Ferland A, Dery S, Dewailly E. Dietary sodium intake deleteriously affects blood pressure in a normotensive population. Eur J Clin Nutr.

2012;66(4):533–5.

[19] Zhang Z, Cogswell ME, Gillespie C, Fang J, Loustalot F, Dai S, et al. Association

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between usual sodium and potassium intake and blood pressure and hypertension among U.S. adults: NHANES 2005-2010. PLoS One. 2013;8(10):e75289.

[20] Noh HM, Park SY, Lee HS, Oh HY, Paek YJ, Song HJ, et al. Association between high blood pressure and intakes of sodium and potassium among Korean adults: Korean National Health and nutrition examination survey, 2007-2012.

J Acad Nutr Diet. 2015;115(12):1950–7.

[21] Ravi S, Bermudez OI, Harivanzan V, Kenneth Chui KH, Vasudevan P, Must A, et al. Sodium intake, blood pressure, and dietary sources of sodium in an adult south Indian population.

Ann Glob Health. 2016;82(2):234–42.

[22] Mohammadifard N, Khaledifar A, Khosravi A, Nouri F, Pourmoghadas A, Feizi A, et al.

Dietary sodium and potassium intake and their association with blood pressure in a nonhypertensive Iranian adult population: Isfahan salt study. Nutr Diet. 2017;74(3): 275–82.

[23] Lava SA, Bianchetti MG, Simonetti GD. Salt intake in children and its consequences on blood pressure. Pediatr Nephrol.

2015;30(9):1389–96.

[24] Farajian P, Panagiotakos DB, Risvas G, Micha R, Tsioufis C, Zampelas A. Dietary and lifestyle patterns in relation to high blood pressure in children: the GRECO study. J Hypertens. 2015;33(6):1174–81.

[25] Appel LJ, Lichtenstein AH, Callahan EA, Sinaiko A, Van Horn L, Whitsel L. Reducing sodium intake in children: a public health investment. J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich).

2015;17(9):657–62.

[26] Kottke TE, Wu LA, Hoffman RS.Economic and psychological implications of the obesity epidemic. Mayo Clin Proc. 2003;78(1):92-4.

[27] Peeters A, Barendregt JJ, Willekens F, Mackenbach JP, Al Mamun A, Bonneux L, et al. Obesity in adulthood and its consequences for life expectancy: A life-table analysis. Ann Intern Med. 2003;138(1):24-32.

[28] Cawley J. The impact of obesity on wages. J Human Resources XXXIX(2): 451-74.2004.

[29] Puhl R, Brownell KD. Bias, discrimination, and obesity. Obes Res. 2001;9(12):788-805.

[30] University of Minnesota „ 15- year study shows strong link between fast food, obesity

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and insulin persistance” www.sciencedaily. com/releases/2005/01/050111152135.html [31] World Health Organization (WHO), Childhood overweight and obesity; http:// www.who.int/dietphysicalavtivity/childhood/ en/index.html [32] J Crowle and E Turner, Productivity Commission staff working paper, Childhood obesity: an economic perspective, Productivity Commission, Melbourne, 2010 [33] According to WHO statistics 2.6 million people die annually as a result of being overweight or obese, WHO,Global strategy on diet, physical activity and health information pages http:// www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/childhood/ en/index.html [34] Studies on this topic given as examples and as cited in J McGinnis, J Appleton Gootman and V Kraak, Food marketing to children and youth: threat or opportunity?

The National Academies Press, Washington, 2006 Borzwkowki and Robinson, 2001;Galst and White, 1976, Goldberg,Gorn and Gibson,1978; Taras, Sallis, Patterson, Nader and Nelson 1989 [35] W Gantz, N Schwartz, J Angelini and V Rideout, Food for thought: television food advertising to children in the United States, Kaiser Family Foundation, 2007 [36] R Watts, Protecting children from unhealthy food marketing, 2007, British Heart Foundation and Children’s Food Campaign [37] Am J ClinNutr. 2014 Jan; 99(1):162- 171.

[38] Mihai GIRTU, Cosmin Tudor CIOCAN, ”Scientific Consensus, Public Perception and Religious Beliefs – A Case Study on Nutrition,” Proceedings DIALOGO (The first Virtual International Conference on the Dialogue between Science and Theology.), ISBN: 978-80-554-0960-3, ISSN: 23931744, vol. 1, issue 1, pp. 70-75, 2014.

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Smoking and the Cerebrovascular Disease 1. Any Docu-Axelerad, PhD

2. Daniel Docu-Axelerad, PhD

Ovidius University of Constanta, Department of General Medicine Constanta, Romania

Ovidius University of Constanta, FEFS, Kinethoteraphy Department Constanta, Romania

3. Negrea Valentin, PhD

3. Musat Gheorghe, PhD

Ovidius University of Constanta, Department of General Medicine Constanta, Romania

Ovidius University of Constanta, Department of General Medicine Constanta, Romania

ARTICLE INFO

ABSTRACT

Article history: Received 3 May 2018 Received in revised form 11 May 2018 Accepted 15 May 2018 Available online 20 June 2018 doi: 10.18638/dialogo.2018.4.2.9

Tobacco use has reached epidemic proportions worldwide, about one billion people are smokers globally. Although by comparison there are fewer smokers now than 25 years ago, the increased consumption of tobacco is due to global population growth.

A smoking habit is a physical and psychological addiction to tobacco products, with serious health consequences. Smoking significantly increases the risk of developing the cerebrovascular disease due to the harmful effects of chemical substances contained in cigarette smoke in the blood vessels.

Keywords: cerebrovascular disease; cigarette smoke; blood vessels; early death; nicotine abuse;

Š 2014 RCDST. All rights reserved.

I. INTRODUCTION

II. Material and method:

Smoking was the second leading risk of early death and disability worldwide in 2015.[1 ] More work is still needed to target tobacco use, despite the progress in reducing the number of smokers. The researchers found that although the percentage of people who smoke has declined, the overall number of smokers has actually increased, due to population growth.[2]

We analyzed literature data that correlate nicotine abuse with diseases, especially with a cerebrovascular disease III. Discussion and results:

Nicotine is the primary substance in the cigarette and can act as a stimulant or as a depressant, depending on the amount

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eISSN: 2393-1744, cdISSN: 2392-9928 printISSN: 2457-9297, ISSN-L 2392-9928 ISBN 978-80-554-1466-9

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consumed and the circumstances, and that’s why some people report that smoking gives them energy and stimulates their mental activity, while others note that smoking relieves anxiety and relaxes them. Nicotine deregulates cardiac autonomic function boosts sympathetic activation, raises heart rate, causes coronary and peripheral vasoconstriction, increases myocardial workload, and stimulates adrenal and neuronal catecholamine release. Also, nicotine is associated with insulin resistance, increased serum lipid levels, and intravascular inflammation that contributes to the development of atherosclerosis.

[3] Nicotine might alter the function of the blood-brain barrier and disrupt normal endothelial cell function.

Cigarette smoke contains, besides nicotine, other substances like carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, arsenic, and cyanide, chemicals that can cause damage to blood vessels increasing the risk of all types of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

Tobacco’s smoke ingredients cause endothelial damage and dysfunction, increase oxidative stress and also have a significant effect on lipid metabolism and the regulation of lipid levels in the blood.[4] Smoking is associated with elevated serum concentrations of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein(LDL) and very low-density lipoprotein(VLDL) and triglycerides leading to atherosclerosis.

On the other hand, smoking lowers serum concentrations of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, a potent protective factor against the development of atherosclerosis.

[5] [6 ] The atherosclerotic effects of cigarette smoke are due to a substantial degree to thrombosis-related events.[7] Cigarette smoke also produces many other events such as increased platelet aggregability, polycythemia,

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and carboxyhemoglobinemia, decreased macrophage activity, increased fibrinogen levels and direct toxic effects of compounds such as 1,3-butadiene, a vapor phase that accelerates atherosclerosis in animal models. All these mechanisms increase the risk of ischemic stroke.

Chronic cigarette smoking affects the normal hemostasis by influencing the coagulation pathways. However, the effect of smoking intensity on the degree of impairment of coagulation cascade remains unclear. Chronic smokers tend to have lower platelet count, shorter APTT, and higher platelet aggregability compared to non-smokers. Therefore, chronic smokers should be investigated for hemostatic dysfunctions.[8] Usually, erythrocyte masses are larger in smokers compared to non-smokers. Also, the levels of carboxyhemoglobin in cigarette smokers are higher than average, sufficient to cause clinically significant hypoxemia and to account for the increased in red blood cell count.

When the carbon monoxide from de cigarette smoke is inhaled, by either active or passive smokers, blood levels of carboxyhemoglobin are increased while the intake of O₂ to tissues decreases, affecting the vascular permeability. The increase in endothelial permeability, together with the injuries to the intima of the arterial wall associated with exposure to CO, leads to subendothelial edema manifested by early atherosclerotic changes, such as fat deposition in the arterial walls.[9] Risk factors for stroke are nonmodifiable, represented by age, race, genes, ethnicity and modifiable like cigarette smoking, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia.

Cigarette smoking remains a significant risk factor for stroke, nearly doubling the risk with a dose-response relationship between pack-years and stroke

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risk. [10] [11] It is estimated that smoking contributes to ~15% of all stroke deaths per year.[12 ] Second-hand smoke contains many of the same chemicals that people inhale when they smoke, and it has been identified as an independent risk factor for stroke. Secondhand smoke refers to the smoke exhaled by the smoker in combination with the smoke emitted into the environment from lit cigarettes.

The cerebrovascular effects of passive smoking are nearly the same as for the real smokers, operating through the same biological mechanisms such as vasoconstriction, inflammation and formation of clots.

Smokeless tobacco it is also used around the world. One systematic review consisting of American and European studies has reported an association between smokeless tobacco use and stroke.

[13 ] The risk of fatal stroke associated with smokeless tobacco use was significantly higher.

Cigarette smoking is also associated with higher risk of hemorrhagic stroke, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and intracerebral hemorrhage.

Subarachnoid hemorrhage represents the extravasation of blood into the subarachnoid space, and it can be traumatic or nontraumatic-which usually occurs in the setting of a ruptured cerebral aneurysm or arteriovenous malformation.

Regarding the close link between cigarette smoking and the occurrence of subarachnoid hemorrhage, studies conducted over time, have shown that smoking was found to be a short and long-term risk factor for subarachnoid hemorrhage to all smokers, but especially for aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage and women. Importantly, it has been found

that smokers have a greater amount of aneurysms that are also larger than those in non-smokers.[14] [15 ] Recent data have implicated a role of inflammation in the development of cerebral aneurysms. Inflammation accompanying cigarette smoke exposure may thus be a critical pathway underlying the development, progression, and rupture of cerebral aneurysms.[16] Smoking is an established risk factor for subarachnoid hemorrhage, yet the underlying mechanism is largely unknown.

Several hypotheses may explain the effects of smoking in subarachnoid hemorrhage, including enhanced systematic coagulability, inflammation within arterial walls, increased blood pressure, endothelial dysfunction, and the promotion of the degradation of elastin within vessels walls by interfering with alpha1-antitrypsin.[17] Cigarette smoking can cause an acute increase in blood pressure immediately after smoking, due to stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system, an effect that can last up to three hours. The risk in blood pressure could contribute to the rupture of aneurysms or even small intracerebral arteries.[18] Connections appear to be dosedependent, the chance of subarachnoid hemorrhage being directly proportional to the amount of cigarettes smoked, while smoking cessation reduces the risk of this type of bleeding over time.

Intracerebral hemorrhage is the second most common subtype of stroke and is defined as bleeding within the brain parenchyma due to rupture of an intracerebral blood vessel. Regarding intracerebral hemorrhage, the risk factors involved in its occurrence are hypertension, smoking, alcohol, cholesterol, and lipids, diabetes mellitus, cerebral amyloid angiopathy, anticoagulant medication or

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genetic risk factors.

Although smoking is not a risk factor as high as hypertension in the development of intracerebral hemorrhagic events, studies have consistently shown tobacco use as a risk factor for intracerebral hemorrhage.[19] [20] The relationship in this pathology is also dose-response, the risk of intracerebral hemorrhage being lower in non-smokers compared to smokers or even former smokers.

Cigarette smoking is a major risk factor for stroke, where it confers a similar hazard in women as in men. Similarly, the benefits of smoking cessation on the future risk of stroke are the same in both sexes.

Tobacco control policies that target both smoking initiation and suspension should be a mainstay of stroke primary prevention programs, particularly in low and middleincome countries, which shoulder the greatest dual burden of tobacco exposure and stroke.[21] The tobacco epidemic is one of the most significant threats to public health facing humanity, tobacco killing active or passive about half of those who consume it.

Numerous epidemiological studies in various countries (INTERHEART, ISIS) show that smoking is a significant concern in the etiology of cerebrovascular, cardiovascular, peripheral vascular diseases and that there is a dose-effect relationship.

In terms of cerebrovascular disease, smoking itself is one of the most critical risk factors but at the same time, smoking has a potentiating effect on other risk factors (oral contraceptives-for example) and the effect of toxic compounds in tobacco on cerebral vascular system can be both acute and chronic.

Stroke mortality is higher for smokers compared to non-smokers, regardless of sex, and smoking cessation is associated

Session 1. OverPopulation and its effects

with both lowering the risk of stroke in all its forms and decreasing mortality through this condition.

So, it is essential to achieve early detection and intensive consumption of tobacco, starting with population screening, informing patients about harmful effects of smoking both passively and actively and sustaining them throughout the period through various methods such as psychological therapy [22] or nicotine replacement therapy.

Conclusion: A smoking habit is a physical and psychological addiction to tobacco products, with serious health consequences. Smoking significantly increases the risk of developing cerebrovascular disease due to the harmful effects of chemical substances contained in cigarette smoke in the blood vessels.

References [1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

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Forounzanfar MH, Afshin A, Alexander LT, et al. Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks, 19902015; a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015. Lancet 2016; 388: 1659-724 Marrisa B. Ritsma, Nancy Fullman, Marie Ng, et al. Smoking prevalence and attributable disease burden in 195 countries and territories, 1990-2015; a systematic analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015, thelancet.com , Vol 389, May 13, 2017 Benowitz NL, Gourlay SG. Cardiovascular Toxicity of Nicotine: Implications for Nicotine Replacement Therapy. J Am Coll Cardiol. 1997; 29:1422-1431 Craig WY, Palomaki GE, Haddow JE. Cigarette smoking and serum lipid and lipoprotein concentrations: an analysis of published data. Br Med J. 1989; 298(6676):784-788

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Gnasso A, Haberbosch W, Schettler G, et al. Acute influence of smoking on plasma lipoproteins. Klin Wochenschr.

1984;62(Suppl2):36-42 [6] McCall MR, van denBerg J, Kuypers FA, et al. Modification of LCAT activity and HDL structure. New links between cigarette smoke and coronary heart disease risk. Arterioscler Thromb. 1994; 14(2):248-253 [7] USA Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. Secondhand Smoke exposure and Cardiovascular Effects:Making Sens of the Evidence. Washington DC: The National Academies Press, National Academy of Sciences, 2009 [8] Sandhya M, Satyanarayana U, Mohanty S, et al. Impact of chronic cigarette smoking on platelet aggregation and coagulation profile in apparently healthy male smokers. Int J Clin Exp Physiol 2015;2:128-33 [9] Kjeldsen K, Astrup P, Wanstrup J. Reversal of rabbit atheromatosis by hyperoxia. J Atheroscler Res. 1969. Sep-Oct;10(2):173-8 [10] Wolf PA, D’Agostino RB, Belanger AJ,st al.

Probability of stroke:a risk profile from the Framingham Study. Stroke. 1991;22:312-318 [11] Bhat VM, Cole JW, Sorkin JD, et al. Doseresponse relationship between cigarette smoking and risk of ischemic stroke in young women. Stroke. 2008; 39:2439-2443. Doi. 10.1161/STROKEAHA.107.510073 [12] Thun MJ, Apicella LF, Henley SJ. Smoking vs other risk factors as the cause of smokingattributable deaths: confounding in the courtroom. JAMA. 2000;284:706-712 [13] The health consequences of smoking – 50 years of progress. A report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta: US Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health; 2014 (http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/ library/reports/50-years-ofprogress/fullreport.pdf,accessed 10 June 2015) [14] Quareshi Al, Suarez Ji, Parekh PD, et al. Risk Factors for Multiple Intracranial Aneurysms.

Neurosurgery. 1998, 43:22-26.

[15] Quareshi Al, Sung GY, Fareed SM et al. Factors [5]

associated with aneurysm size in patient with subarachnoid haemorrhage:effect of smoking and aneurysm location. Neurosurgery. 2000, 46: 44-50. 10.1097/00006123-20000100000009.

[16] Nohra Chalouhi, Muhammad S. Ali, Robert M.Starke, et al. Cigarette Smoke and Inflammation: Role in Cerebral Aneurysm Formation and Rupture. Hindawi Publishing Corporation. Mediators of Inflammation.

Volume 2012, Article ID 271582, 12 pages.

Doi:10.1155/2012/271582 [17] Gaetani P, Tartara F, Tancioni F, et al. Activity of α1-antitrypsin and cigarette smoking in subarachnoid haemorrhage from ruptured aneurysm. J Neurol Sci. 1996; 141:33-38 [18] Juvela S. Prevalence of risk factors in spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage and aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Archives of Neurology: 1996, 53:734-740 [19] Zhang Y, Tuomilehto J, Jousilahti P, et AL. Lifestyle factors on the risks of ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke. Arch Intern Med. 2011; 171(20):1811-8. Doi: 10.1001/ archintemmed.2011.443.

[20] Andersen KK, Olsen TS, Dehlendorff C, et al.

Hemorrhagic and ischemic strokes compared: stroke severity, mortality, and risk factors.

Stroke. 2009;40(6):2068-72. Doi:10.1161/ STROKEAHA.108.540112 [21] Sanne A. E. Peters, Rachel R. Huxley and Mark Woodward; Smoking as a Risk Factor for stroke in Women Compared with Men: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of 81 Cohorts, Including 3 980 350 Individuals and 42 401 Strokes; Stroke. 2013;44-2821-2828; originally published online August 22, 2013; doi.10.1161/STROKEAHA.113.002342 [22] Cosmin, CIOCAN Tudor, Alina, MARTINESCU,”Death gene,” Proceedings DIALOGO (The first Virtual International Conference on the Dialogue between Science and Theology.), ISBN: 978-80-554-0960-3, ISSN: 2393-1744, vol. 1,issue 1,pp. 83--88, 2014.

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Diabetes Mellitus and Urbanization 1. Any Docu-Axelerad, PhD

2. Daniel Docu-Axelerad, PhD

3. Mirela Damian, PhD

4. Antoanela Oltean, PhD

Ovidius University of Constanta, Department of General Medicine Constanta, Romania

Ovidius University of Constanta, FEFS, Kinethoteraphy Department Constanta, Romania

Ovidius University of Constanta, FEFS, Kinethoteraphy Department Constanta, Romania ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 4 May 2018 Received in revised form 14 May 2018 Accepted 17 May 2018 Available online 20 June 2018 doi: 10.18638/dialogo.2018.4.2.10

Keywords: obesity; fast-food restaurant; Body Mass Index;

Ovidius University of Constanta, FEFS, Kinethoteraphy Department Constanta, Romania

ABSTRACT

Diabetes Mellitus is one of the most common diseases, causing significant mortality and morbidity worldwide (1). Type 2 diabetes, obesity and hyperlipidemia have been traditionally considered as diseases of affluence. The contribution of dietary practices and lifestyle factors are crucial: e.g. overeating of junk foods and drinking carbonated beverages, modern-day working style like working without breaks, an increase in smoking, tobacco chewing and alcohol intake, exposure to severe stress; decreased physical activity. Incidence and prevalence of diabetes mellitus significantly more in the urban population. Š 2014 RCDST. All rights reserved.

I. INTRODUCTION

II. MATERIAL AND METHOD:

It is a disease with severe complications that has now reached epidemic proportions, and the prevalence rates are expected to go even higher in the future. If the current trend continues, more than 170 million people worldwide will have this disease, and this burden is projected to more than double by the year 2030 (from 170 million in 2000 to 366 million to 2030) (2).

We analyzed the effect of diabetes on urban population, educational level, family history of diabetes, overweight, and obesity.

III. DISCUSSION AND RESULTS:

It has been described that urbanization leads to an obesogenic environment as many urban areas do not support healthy

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lifestyle choices (3). Moreover, the risk of developing Diabetes Mellitus type 2 can also be increased if the thrifty phenotype is more prevalent in resource-constrained settings (3). A relatively recent systematic review found that, in the United States, urban sprawl and less mixed land use were consistently associated with overweight and obesity among adults (4). Although the results show great heterogeneity regarding other physical environmental factors, it is expected that these factors have an impact on physical activity levels too. Also, within-country migration and urbanization are two sociodemographic phenomena commonly occurring in developing countries undergoing rapid socioeconomic development.

One of the primary results of the 5-year follow-up of one study with rural-to-urban migrants in PERU was the increased risk of general and central obesity reported among the migrant group and urban dwellers as compared to the rural population. Obesity has been reported as the leading risk factor associated with Diabetes Mellitus type 2.

The exposure to urban areas first leads to obesity and then progresses towards to type 2 diabetes (5).

Globalization, urbanization, migration and upward social mobility have been associated with pre-diabetic and obesogenic lifestyle behaviors, especially among poorly educated migrants or migrants of low socioeconomic status (6, 7, 8). The phenomenon called “nutritional transition” has been pivotal in understanding the increased risks of overnutrition and related conditions such as overweight/obesity and Diabetes Mellitus type 2 (8). Among withincountry migrants, the nutritional transition signals the environmental change that individuals face following rural-to-urban migration, thus potentially explaining the elevated risk of developing some chronic cardiometabolic conditions (8, 9, 10). Rural-

to-urban migrants, compared to those who remain in their rural region, tend to acquire sedentary behaviors and to have “less healthy” nutritional habits (11, 12, 13, 14).

The effect of urban exposure is associated with different factors, some of which are inherent to particular population groups.

From a biological and mechanistic point of view, the thrifty phenotype hypothesis suggests that Diabetes Mellitus type 2 and obesity risk is greater in those exposed to fetal under-nutrition, a trait that is more pronounced in deprived sectors of society, including rural sites. The adversity in utero may lead to an increase in insulin resistance among other metabolic changes, beneficial for survival during the intrauterine period.

The same adaptive process could potentially affect cardiovascular health later in life, and therefore is likely to affect the health of rural dwellers and rural-to-urban migrants in adulthood (15). This hypothesis has been tested in studies in India and China and highlights the influence of environmental exposure, i.e., urbanization and migration, especially for those with early deprivation, in the risk for developing Diabetes Mellitus type 2 (16, 17).

As a result of the high prevalence of malnutrition in the low socio-economic population in developing countries, obesity and diabetes were presumed not to be an essential issue for them.

However, there is an increase in the prevalence of diabetes in countries such as India (18), particularly in urban areas (19), both in native Indians (20, 21) and in the migrant population (22). Also, Indian people with abdominal obesity and insulin resistance, and develop glucose intolerance more often (23), eg. in the urban population of Delhi, the prevalence of diabetes mellitus ranged from 1.6 to 9%, being more common in obese subjects (24); in the rural Indian population, it is reported to be in the range of 1-5%. (25, 26, 27). A rural population in India

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usually has a low risk of developing diabetes and obesity (25), but their migration to metropolitan cities exposes them to several adverse environmental influences. Several lifestyle alterations [65] result from this transition: the establishment of urban slums, working with the day, changes from traditional penurious eating habits to highfat diets, increases in smoking, tobacco chewing, and alcohol intake - are several reasons for vulnerability to diet-related diseases. In people of the urban area, there is a decrease in physical activity and lack of natural exercises. Even though most of them go for physical exercise in the form of the gym and artificial exercises more often it has been practiced along with stress (28).

People who leave a rural lifestyle for an urban environment are exposed to high levels of stress and tend to have higher levels of cortisol (29). This hormone, Cortisol can counteract insulin, the hormone that regulates blood sugar, and slows the body’s production of it (29). In the adverse socioeconomic circumstances, often combined with psychosocial stress, the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenocortical axis is activated and a ‘physiological defeat reaction’ occurs (30,31). Increased waisthip ratio and generalized obesity may thus result (32).

A few studies developed in developed countries indicate that prevalence of established risk factors, including obesity and diabetes mellitus, is higher among men and women with low levels of education and socioeconomic status (33). A recent study from the UK records that type 2 diabetes is inversely related to the socio-economic stratum (34). In this study, the prevalence of diabetes in the least deprived quintile was 13.4 per thousand persons (95% CI 11.4415.36), compared to 17.22 (95% CI 13.84-17.11) in the most deprived.

Epidemiological studies reveal an increase in rates of type 2 diabetes

Session 1. OverPopulation and its effects

particularly in developing countries where the transition from communicable to chronic diseases (35, 36) is found. In this respect, a predisposing factor in some populations is the rapid transition from rural to urban lifestyle (37, 38, 39). There are studies in low- and middle-income countries that show that urban populations are more prone to chronic illness than rural residents (40, 41, 42, 43).

According to a study conducted in Oman, we observe a high prevalence of diabetes, obesity, hypertension and high cholesterol, especially among urban-dwellers and older individuals (44).

In Malaysia, diabetes mellitus is a huge growing concern. Significant changes in the lifestyles of Malaysians have contributed to the increased incidence of diabetes.

Malaysia. This rising trend is mainly due to some factors such as growing population, aging, urbanization and increasing prevalence of obesity and physical inactivity among Malaysians (45).

In some countries, eg. Bangladesh, the prevalence of type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome may be alarmingly high in the middle class. Centripetal obesity is common among Bangladesh, particularly among women (46, 47). Sustained economic growth has encouraged higher intakes of food and choices of so-called “fast-food” options rich in calories due to the increased exposure to processed and other salt and chemical rich foods (48). Nutritional information on packaged food is not enforced and food contamination is rampant due to inadequate regulation and limited oversight (49, 50).

A lack of nutritional knowledge, cultural preferences and beliefs can inhibit informed decision-making about dietary intake and other lifestyle factors.

The physical environment is also likely a contributing factor. Moreover, the city neighborhoods are not conducive to safe outdoor activities due to the confluence of

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population density, traffic jams, and crime; other prohibitive factors include a hot and humid climate, unremitting construction work, and excessive dust (51, 52).

Prevalence of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus is higher than expected in urban areas in Tanzania, indicating an increasing population who are at risk for delivery complications and type 2 diabetes in SubSaharan Africa (53).

A study conducted in Brazil on the urban population aged between 30 and 69 years revealed that there was a higher prevalence of DM with increasing age in people with low educational level, family history of diabetes, overweight, obesity and central obesity. The studies confirm the increased prevalence of DM in Brazil and emphasize the need for early diagnosis, as well as the importance of strict adherence to medical treatment in order to prevent its muchfeared complications (54).

There is very little reliable information on the prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of diabetes in Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union. One study found that a high overall prevalence of diabetes (12.5%); the prevalence was twice higher in the urban sample than in the rural area (16.3% vs. 8.6%). Awareness, treatment and control of diabetes were also approximately twice higher in the urban vs. rural area. The large urban-rural differences suggest a role of urbanized lifestyle and access to health care (55).

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a major health problem in Africa and worldwide.

The prevalence of diabetes is expected to increase at an alarming rate in Africa. Its estimated that around 20 million Africans are now living with diabetes, comprising a challenge for health systems at present and in the future. One study aimed to determine the prevalence of undiagnosed and diagnosed DM and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) in adult urban communities

of the River Nile State (RNS), north Sudan.

There is a high prevalence of DM and glucose intolerance in the urban population of the RNS. Increasing age, a family history of diabetes, central obesity, abnormal body mass index, and hypertension were significant risk factors for DM. Screening for diabetes in individuals with any feature of metabolic syndrome is recommended (56).

The prevalence of type 2 diabetes in Africa is about 2.5 percent, ranging from 0.8 percent in rural Cameroon (57) to 13.5 percent in Mauritius (58). It is more frequent in South Africa and North Africa than in Central and West Africa, and it increases from rural to urban areas (59). In Africa, the number of people with diabetes is projected to rise from 7.020.000 to 18.234.000 and in Cameroon from 70.000 to 171.000.

The prevalence of diabetes in African communities is increasing with aging, rapid urbanization and westernization.

In this respect, genetic susceptibility contributes to certain ethnic groups in conjunction with environmental and behavioral factors such as sedentary lifestyle, overly rich nutrition and obesity (60, 61, 62).

Comparing with other developing countries, who suffer from malnutrition, Cameroon suffers from overnutrition having a diet consisting of palm oil, cornflower products, and red meat. Cameroonian lifestyle results in extreme risk of type 2 diabetes (63).

Weight reduction can reduce the risk of diabetes in those with impaired glucose tolerance. In diabetic patients, weight loss can also improve glycemic control and cardiovascular risk factors. Diabetes spending increases substantially in the presence of various cardio-metabolic risk factors (CMR) factors (e.g., obesity, hypertension, and dyslipidemia), independent of the presence of other chronic complications (64).

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Conclusions Diet and lifestyle influence significantly on our health. We are going away from the traditional style of life in this era. This is evident when we look at the prevalence of lifestyle disorders including Diabetes Mellitus type 2. Urban style of life is mostly the base for these disorders. Lifestyle Diseases are silent killers. People of urban and suburban areas are even though sophisticated in comparison with rural areas; they are unaware of the preventive aspects. That is why awareness of health regarding preventive elements is necessary for these areas (28).

Promotion of implementing healthy lifestyle along with the information about risk factors, diet, exercise, and screening should be encouraged through health campaigns. This can be started as early as in school. This study has significant implications to design future educational programmes to control diabetes mellitus. Apart from educating the public, these programmes can be designed in such a way to train and upgrade the health care professions, mainly the physicians and pharmacists, to produce competent diabetes educators who would be able to educate the public on the control of diabetes mellitus.

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Statistics Quarterly [60] h t t p s : / / w w w. d u o . u i o . n o / b i t s t r e a m / handle/10852/30160/VivianxMbanya. pdf?sequence=2 Sobngwi E, Mbanya JC, Unwin NC, Kengne AP, Fezeu L, Minkoulou EM, et al. Physical activity and its relationship with obesity, hypertension and diabetes in urban and rural Cameroon. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 2002 Jul;26(7):1009-16.

[61] h t t p s : / / w w w. d u o . u i o . n o / b i t s t r e a m / handle/10852/30160/VivianxMbanya. pdf?sequence=2 Sobngwi E, Mbanya JC, Unwin NC, Porcher R, Kengne AP, Fezeu L, et al. Exposure over the life course to an urban environment and its relation with obesity, diabetes, and hypertension in rural and urban Cameroon. Int J Epidemiol 2004 Aug;33(4):769-76.

[62] h t t p s : / / w w w. d u o . u i o . n o / b i t s t r e a m / handle/10852/30160/VivianxMbanya. pdf?sequence=2 International Insulin Foundation. Fact Sheet on diabetes in subSaharan Africa. www.access2insulin.org.

2007.

[63] h t t p s : / / w w w. d u o . u i o . n o / b i t s t r e a m / handle/10852/30160/VivianxMbanya. pdf?sequence=2 Mbanya JC. The Quarterly update from the World Diabetes Foundation.

2006. International Diabetes Foundation.

[64] h t t p s : / / w w w. d u o . u i o . n o / b i t s t r e a m / handle/10852/30160/VivianxMbanya. pdf?sequence=2 Hoerger TJ, Ahmann AJ. The impact of diabetes and associated cardiometabolic risk factors on members:strategies for optimizing outcomes.

J Manag Care Pharm 2008 Feb;14(1 Suppl C):S2-14.

[65] Cosmin Tudor CIOCAN, “Local’s impact on a new spreading religion” in Jurnalul Libertăţii de Conştiinţă [Journal for Freedom of Conscience], Les Arcs, France: Editionis Iarsic, 4/2016, pp. 739-759. ISSN 2495-1757

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Section 2

Religion And Overpopulation

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DIALOGO JOURNAL 4 : 2 (2018) 95 - 104

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This paper was presented in the

The Virtual International Conference on the Dialogue between Science and Theology. (DIALOGO-CONF 2018 ORI)

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held online, on the Journal’s website, from MAY 19 - 26, 2018

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A new version of religion, the megalopolitan one How the overcrowding society interact with traditional local religion.

Secularization, the new messiah Fr. Lecturer CIOCAN Tudor Cosmin, PhD Faculty of Theology, Ovidius University of Constanța, Romania

ARTICLE INFO

ABSTRACT

Article history: Received 23 February 2018 Received in revised form 14 May Accepted 15 May 2018 Available online 20 May 2018 doi: 10.18638/dialogo.2018.4.2.11

Globalization, migration, and an increasingly complex connection between nation and culture, have prompted a renewed recognition of religion as a major social, political, and cultural force. For the main-stream religions [in-power in each State] this has come as both a shock and a challenge facing the long-held presumption about the oneness of religious faith. The new form of establishment that the megalopolitan life brings challenges religions both to coexist, to coop, and to reconsider their values and methods in order to be kept significant and trustworthy for the civil life. Whoever do not adjust is doomed to vanish, and we have seen so many examples from which nowadays religions should learn some.

Keywords: myth; disadvantages; overcrowding; society; replacement; individual consciousness; the role of the individual; personal development; social oppression; commination;

© 2014 RCDST. All rights reserved.

I. Introduction

The concept of ‘overpopulation’ drives many questions and double the problems.

Leaving aside the dilemma whether there is or there is not a real issue to confront with, we will focus on the things that are most obvious and unquestionable. We cannot stand for one side of the doubt whether the overpopulation is the new plague for the Earth and its inhabitants, or merely a myth. We cannot say that this phenomenon brings only disadvantages since the advantages are also visible and qualitative

quite significant (e.g., the technological developments in many different aspects are growing exponentially, following a nonlinear pathway, more likely an arithmetic progression, a parable aiming up[1]). Now, without further delay, I prefer to analyze a glitch that comes along with overpopulation over religion, or more precisely, to the religiousness.

II. Overpopulation and overcrowding

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vs individual consciousness

We have heard that “the menace” eISSN: 2393-1744, cdISSN: 2392-9928 printISSN: 2457-9297, ISSN-L 2392-9928 ISBN 978-80-554-1466-9

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of overpopulation was strongly denied by many voices, but one aspect is most certain about this issue, overcrowding.

While the archaic society was used to have stability in the spreading of social groups, in the distribution of the workforce and the tasks of each social actor, the new social organization completely eliminates these concepts, ruining the understanding of all the social values and their hierarchy. ‘Before times’ the human society, even unequal scattered in the lands, had somehow figured out all its values in a pyramidal hierarchy. The stability of the ‘traditional’ hierarchy was ensured by two unambiguous processes: on the one hand, the society produced the necessary elements for the individual, which were provided to him under certain conditions because he was indispensable for society. On the other, the individual relied with whole confidence on the social organization, which had created the comfort and the psychic stability he needed to work and give to his society all his resources [fruits of his work, energy, knowledge, skill, time]. It was a Barter Agreement in which both were involved and both in benefit since both worth a lot for the other part. Now, the realm of overcrowding gives a decreasing importance to the individual, which is no longer indispensable to the group, the society, since the nearest truth in this social organization is that each individual can be easily replaced without hurting the group.

On a larger scale, the group has similar importance to the human society, with same non-“value” of replacement: when either an individual or a group, or even a small society disappear from the big picture, nothing should suffer and the line of progress should not get deviated from its path. It should have been predictable for human society as it is obvious and discovered to all other species: The group is beyond the individual, and the society above both individuals and group.

Therefore, as seen to all other species, the very nature of their survival lies on the

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same pattern that is inexorably put in act with same mean always: overpopulation. It is thou the very ‘plan’ of survival for every species: to exponential multiply so that they overcome the menace of self-destruction and to ensure that society’s continuity in progress. What differ us – humans – from all other species with similar behavior of overpopulating land is that they already know that ‘rule’ and, in large part, each individual of those species is aware of it and has accepted it by being ready for personal sacrifice and its replacement.

For us, humans, this is still unacceptable, and always the individual consciousness struggles to find its importance/ prerogative in the plenitude of the species [2], moreover the thought of replacement is unbearable.

III. Traditional religions against

modern societal order

How was it ‘before times’? There was a time when all people were raised with the idea that everyone meters, that each of humans has a certain role in life and, for that matter, each counts in the society. From head to toe (rom. “de la vlădică până la opincă”) all individuals self-proclaimed as countable; the king was rightfully unexpendable, but then the worker had same impression that he counts as well for his involvement, the peasant too was raised to believe in kind.

That was the reason of so many riots and rallies in which the individual consciousness of self-importance was socially displayed and [mostly only] self-proved. In the animal society the wicked individual is either cast off, left behind or eaten so that the society can survive and move on; no remorse or second thoughts are involved in the act of individual’s replacement. The one that makes the most difference in this regard between the human species and the other species is Religion. This is which elevates man to a level of maximum importance and which, although always taking the collective

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form in behavior, it always exaggerates the role of the individual through his personal relationship with the divinity. The majority of religions emphasizes the importance of personal development, personal spiritual enhancement that can lead to unknown and inexhaustible benefits to society.

These basic principles are the core of every religion, whether it is a cenobite, monastic, or hermit society. In fact ‘the people’ (as a society, a group, or a mass) has really no importance what so ever in any religion from certain point of view [soteriology].

For example, when left powerless leaded by the religious leaders, the people is nothing but a flock that count in numbers facing other [religious] groups; but when standing against the religious leaders’ desires “this crowd/mob is cursed” (John 7:49). In other circumstances all the religious acts and rituals prove that it is the individual that counts and not the society. By rituals that display one’s role in God’s iconomy, by the core teaching of religion – redemption – which is personally given to each individual, by the role and function that is given to certain individuals to have personal encounter with God and become His voice [as priests, prophets, or other chosen role] the hierarchy of values is all the same: individual over society, one vs many. The theology behind this principle is too large and has no relevance here. Even in religions that prove mostly as societal ones – as Mosaism, Christianism, or Mohammedanism – the individual’s preference over society is proved with specific acts and theology [e.g. Christianism Protestant movements changed the status of priesthood given to all and each individuals, empowering each one as opposed to the few leaders; similar conduct can be found to all other religions that place individuals in direct contact and relationship with divinity]. Whenever this theology of ‘personal encounter’ enacts, the idea of replacement is no longer a value to be consider. That is why ‘religion’

is considered to be the creed of the weak/ meek, and it usually starts as a movement against social oppression of individuals [Christianism over Slavery, Protestantism over Black people’s oppression, “Muslims must combat oppression and injustice wherever they are found, even though it is the oppression of the individual against himself, the oppression of society against itself, or the oppression of the government against its constituents”[3] etc.]. Every new movement inside any religion had started with same aim and motivation: of bringing man (individual) once again in the full attention, beyond the Church[4] (group)’s interest and empowerment. With each religious reform the reason is to replenish the meaning of what an individual is and means in God’s eye that is more valuable than the whole Church (Luke 15.3-7).

IV. The Metropolitan life provokes with

a new religious livelihood

A. Before that, religion was safe from

commination

The new era of societal organization is thus marked by this reality made by the overpopulation phenomenon, overcrowding. Before the metropolitan life the organization and meaning of life was a lot different, characterized by the stability and sentiment of safety in all the life sectors.

Everyone knew his place, duty and job, so that was “the time of crafts/professions”, when everything, including religion [N.B.: mark the singularity], has its own place and reason in the individual/society’s course of things. There were no interference between the sectors of social life, and everyone was sure about his path. Religion(s), each one in its local perimeter, was also safe from confusion or any commination of losing value/values. But the population raised its numbers and [this is] not equally spread,

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leading to overcrowding in the regions with most things to offer and to get, and that was not always [about] the places where food was produced. Capitalism, industry and the over-technologized society define the new era in which everything known before had to adjust to survive and “stay on the market”. Things that were once onward, now lose their interest and pole-position, and are now entering through the backdoor, accepting any level of importance or attention they can get from the ‘consumers/ customers’ just for gaining some resources.

This is no longer a closed market, where every ‘craft and craftsman’ got its earning without any challenge or fearing. That era of traditions and common sense was never about marketing and gaining position in the population’s preference; as for the religious existence…this was mostly about unconditional trust and imposing rules, dogma and unrefined dominance. Now, on the contrary, it is everything about contesting for the top positions in the population’s interest, therefore it is all about marketing and market strategies, and nothing [again] about demanding or pretending a common sense authority. While this “secular menace” was indeed felt as a threat by the traditional religions, since they were never used to compete or be disobeyed, on the other hand the population took this marketing new rule as an opportunity to lose the imposed religiousness of their back for good. This megalopolitan way was a cold shower for all religions that offered them an expediency to rethink their strategy of preaching and reaching people’s interest; someones embraced the adjustment policy and “aggiornamento”. [5] For others this Aggiornamento/openness was only a sign of corruption of allegiance, of weakness and inauthenticity. But sooner or later each religion will face same menace and embrace same adjustment technique for survival benefit; for now only religions in regions with strong traditions and religious

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authority ignore this market rule. However, people travel more, learn more, trade more; these habits eventually bring knowledge “forbidden”/unwanted closer than it is kept, so that in time all inhabitants would like to see how their religion answer to this challenge.

B. Religion(s) had to adjust to survive

What are the features of this metropolitan life? Globalization, congestion of multi-alternatives, incorporating as many options as possible, these are the main features life is now determined. There is no room for singularity and time for quality; the only concern is now quantity in the rush of the procession. Imagine a woman taking care of the meal for a three-person family; she has enough time to make all look delicious and to display it in kind. Now, the same picture but with twelve children; time for delights and treats is obviously nonexistent. Assuming that she will cook no less delicious, as much as she would like to do it for pleasure and to make all exquisite, she simply has to make her effort four times higher just to feed them all. Same happens within a megalopolitan society; as much as we would like our life to take the same old path of serendipity.

Consumerism and consumption are other key-words in all the speeches old, traditional societies have for nourishing their flock against ‘the plague Capitalism and over-industrialized cities’ bring. In spite of their struggle to reject the change and the loss of empowerment over their people in all directions [food, history, teaching, learning, jobs, religion], there was nothing to be done against this new social order. And this is not because it has a secret, powerful weapon or means more sophisticated to convince the crowd it is better, but because of the overpopulation and its overcrowded disposal; numbers over singularity. More people need more

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job-opportunities, more and chipper food to earn/get, and no old society could ever offer or obtain them for a rising number of people. [6] The safety of a life-job is gone and people have to undergo a readjustment and reconversion, to leave their stable ‘job for life’ that is no longer stable and enough for rising in numbers families, and work in new sectors of the City; to have two or three jobs to keep the welfare of their families etc.

So the consumerism is only an adjustment tool with which all the people gathered in a megalopolis find bare necessities at a fair price and with discretion. The fear of hunger displayed in the beginning of this new era is no longer a concern due to the food industry genetics; but there are always consequences coming next.

Without these readjustments, so many sectors of the public life and even societies were threatened with destruction, and therefore retired from the public’s attention.

What about religion?c) Religion or better, secularization?

However, this non-adjustmentness policy of religions is taken as another type of religious war, a cold one, but still a fight that society has to push far from the civil life.

Step by step, secularization was no longer an option but a must, and since religions – adapting or not to the megalopolitan life – showed improper conduct to all people, believers or agnostics, – either adapting and losing credibility, or non-adapting and losing respect – Religion is taken by all as a rupture, a cleavage between the people/ flock and religion/leadership. Entering the marketing competition Religion is viewed as a humanly doing and nothing about divinely inspired gift, therefore people broke up with religion in so many kinds due to their disappointment. Some by indifferentism, by losing faith, others by readjusting the value of faith. The later ones either go agnostics and nullifidian, or reformat, or leveling up the religiousness by going either “religiously

unaffiliated” (NONES) or “Spiritual but not religious” (SBNR). These are forms of large people protest against religious mistakes and unethical conduct, without care for people, in hypocrisy and disrespect for everything religion taught for centuries.

Secularization was never a demonic project to make people lose faith in God, but a legitimate reaction of humans to defending their religious believe. To make myself clearer: secularization was stigmatized by religious leadership because it makes them losing in numbers and, therefore in profit, but from the other end of the bridge the secularization secures faith in itself, without religion’s bad influence. It is like a vaccine that takes issue with organized religion as the sole or most valuable means of furthering spiritual growth, and reassure everyone’s possibility of touching divine’s interest. Secularization is ‘the new Messiah’ that demands religion(s) rethink its policy, to reform the ancient, unfair and obsolete way of relating people to divinity, and to lose continuing hegemonies of oppression[7].

Secularization helps civilians from losing every consciousness of sacred, divine, and religiousness, since ‘the organized religion’ holds nothing sacred anymore for it loses either the traditional teachings in the face of the new, reinvented religion, or the respect for people by disregarding its needs, its demands for an updated sanctity.

V. What are the demands for the new

religion?

The main concern of the megalopolitan society for its people is to offer a variety of things for each need, so that the overcrowded population, so diverse and inhomogeneous, can get satisfied in any demand and with multiple assortments.

Picture a mega Mall or a hypermarket in which anybody can find any product, each from several producers, meeting the most demanding tastes and the basic needs, the

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refined wishes and the survival instincts as well. Not just a shelf with everything, but shelves where each product is multiplied in a variety of shapes, packaging, qualities and prices. This is the mark of the Megalopolitan life, an evening spend in a Mall, where each family member visits each one’s taste shops, watches different preferred movies, and sits at the same table with a variety of food from a mega-diverse food-court. Within this picture religion is not any different, for the people in the Megalopolis come from different culture background, with diverse beliefs and traditions, gathering habits so various. In the first stage of development of the Megalopolitan life, the problem was to bringing these varieties of beliefs all together in the City. That because it gathered so many people with as much as many beliefs. It started with considering all denominations and religious manifestations equal to get approval by the State and free to manifest among their adepts. That was by far not acceptable for the main-stream religion, whose voice was always and everywhere, regardless the religious hue it has, equal vehement against ‘the others’.

The exchange between the civil society and church had to stop and to drastically change its proportion; the old routine where the Church intervenes in any political debate and resolution with a decisional interference had to end. So, the second stage of the Megalopolitan order was to lose the religious-cracy and get the civil society out from the Church’s influence, so that they can coexist under the Metropolitan dome without ever fearing again for confessing everyone’s faith. In this regard the rupture between State and Church was irrevocable and categorical pronounced, and the legality of each religion has been legalized.

The resistance to change and to [accept] the new of any previous society was the main concern to overcome in order to fulfill the first stages’ requirement. The civil society was now threatened by a new and

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not-to-be-ignored menace: religious fight for supremacy and uniqueness. Therefore, a third stage was needed, in which a systematic program was developed to cope religious leaders and important voices from every religion and convince them of the categorical and fundamental needed truths that: - All religions are entitled to exist and manifest equally; - There is no such thing as absolute truth / universal truth, therefore we cannot claim a single, true religion[8]; - There is no objective criteria to establish a true or false religion, therefore we have to give same chance to all; A. How can we determine which religious

path to choose or support?

All that emerge from the previous premises are hard to be denied: - that religions are internally diverse; - that religions exist in time and space, and are constantly interpreted and reinterpreted by believers; - and that religions are collections of ideas, practices, values, and stories that are embedded in culture[9].

The truth is that there is no expert that can point us to the single, truly divine religion vs all others. Because of that, there are ultimately no moral absolutes, no authority for deciding if an action is positive or negative, right or wrong. It is absolutely a matter of choice as much as it is of fate (of being born/raised into a religion or another).

As a conclusion, in the megalopolitan society there are no religion [or anything else, any other product or service] that should be favored in spite of others, and this is for the better, both for the civil society – for having peace and untroubled cohabitation between all religious beliefs – as well as for all religions that coexist. We will see

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how come such de-balancing [for the main stream] can have a positive influence on religion(s).

B. Apostasy or free market trade

This new order/establishment has been branded by the mainstream, it has been demonized and taught as evil’s work in the latest times before the Apocalypse. It was taken as the worse scenario of apostasy, and not by a certain religion/denomination, but by all, by turn, in the places each earned and prevailed. But once again we have to emphasize that the wheel once set on the course, it cannot be stopped. So, the Megalopolitan order brought all together in one place and it has to change the rules of the game for all its inhabitants. Distracting from the apple of discord, the State said that a fair chance for all religious manifestations is by far beneficial to everybody. The State will have the branches of the company’s leadership; the society will have its “Mall multi-branded” variety of spirituality and religiousness; the civilians will finally sleep carefree, taking out the concern that a new religious conflict will begin somewhere.

Even inside each religion would be beneficial for the small, new-emerged once will have fair chance to convince, while the old ones, main-stream ones will have the opportunity to rediscover themselves and their values they have been built on, values that usually fade in time and with generations/ now is the time for all to display its best, to live or die just by its fault. In a free market trade there is no room for scams, errors, and deceivings.

While the monopole [a certain religion had on its surrounding market] is gone, only a quality, high branded religion can survive and prosper. The civil society was thrilled on this and did not engage to take sides in the State vs Church recalibration partnership for they had another important advantage in this: no religion would ever again impose its principles and dogmas on anyone; trust and

veneration would simply have to be gain – ontogenetically speaking, it all returns to the beginning, in the times of apostles/ preachers with passion and dedication for their sermons. We have to remember that each religion gain adepts in the beginning not by deceiving, oppression, bigotries and imposing, but with dedication, selfsacrifice, in a free competitive market. The Megalopolitan organization gives back to religions and their followers the opportunity to prove themselves true and right.

Conclusion: What the reactions are?

But this three-stages challenge was not the only issue religion(s) had to deal with.

Instead, they had also face another, worse, and more feared one: people’s interest. For several, complex set of reasons, religion lost its appeal to the population and the flock is drastically changing sides, trend, and numbers. This three stages intervention of the State brought to people’s attention things that are not exactly wanted-to-beknow about religions. Either revealing unspoken truths of some religions, things placed under oblivion because of the wrongness of them, or for the reaction others have under the pressure of being placed in the ‘free market confrontation’, people lost appetite for religion [as public institution], or start research for a more fit able one.

What we are talking about?! Well…

Comparing the-first-to-enter-these-changes societies with those that undergo them now [or not yet], we cannot remark that the reaction of those old-school societies is always in-defense, always to demonize the new ‘menace’ of Capitalism [e.g.

Communism, Fascism, Church, rooted belief] in order to keep their flock safe away from these changes, and self-seeking excuses not to preparing people for these changes. Therefore, instead of confronting the reality and counterbalancing it with

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internal adaptation measures, the old religious societies only accuse the new societal order of humanity’s destruction and disfiguration.

So, what are the main, visible attributes of the old-school religions/societies? Always in denial of a parallel existence, in denial of a possible otherwise true and way of religiosity, in denial of otherness. [10] This leads to the impossibility and incognizance of adaptation. The forcing to look at many religious paths made main-stream religion(s) to formulate some answers. These are almost the same: since the conservation of the flock and the decrease of its number is too alarming and out of the question, next means arrives - conversion of the whole world to your own faith by any means so that you can save the world to its destruction by atheism and faithlessness. “This is obviously too idealistic and unattainable for mere human power”[11]. All these attempts place religion under the reign of ridiculous, force people to cleave in those who believe ‘no matter what, for no reason, just because’, and unbelievers, doubters and skeptics.

Since this fails on a large scale, a new method come to help, “world religions unification, not by conversion but by universal agreement”[12]. Lots and lots of projects, paid by governs with certain interests, grow in this direction. Either esoterically [in public teachings the contradictions would have to be ignored and the agreements (especially in morality) highlighted], or esoterically, trying to expose an esoterically truth that there is a hidden, unwritten, mystical “common core” supposedly equally present in all world religions. In order to do that, everyone would have to become a mystic and see through the illusion that religions contradict each other.[13] Another tool in the new-age confrontation religion has is to consider pluralism with tolerance; each remain within his faith, but, in turn, respect and understand other religion. The biggest advantage in this lies in the relative ease: Session 2. Religion and OverPopulation

we need not find or even seek truth, only decide to tolerate other’s opinions. [14] And most people already accept this ideal in theory. The ‘disadvantage’ is that it seems like indifferentism, and mostly became hypocrites in acts and thoughts The assertions here are not by far only suppositions that aim to distort the reality of the religious phenomenon in the present days, but conclusions made out of the obvious facts. What is obvious nowadays is the increasing percentage of the population who report having no religion, and this cruel reality is not at all a result of a concerted campaign against religion, but of the mistakes, religions made all along disappointing the ones they were supposed to serve. For example, irreligion in New Zealand has doubled from 20.2% at 1991 census to 41.9% in the 2013 census[15].

In Australia, with a smaller speed, still the trend follows the same path, and irreligion has grown from 22% in 2011 to 29.6% in 2016.

In UK from 12.87% in 2001 to 25.7% in 2011.

Moreover, the examples can go on and on in the entire world for tones of reasons.

Another similar trend of losing faith in the religious establishments is to be found in Russia [2012 survey, 43.5%], Albania [52%], Denmark [61%], or the Czech Republic [75%], the highest. The other end gathers Romania 2.4%, Thailand [0.27%], or Bangladesh [0.1%].

In the United States in 2014, 22.8% of the American population does not identify with a religion, including atheists (3.1%) and agnostics (4%)[16]; this is probably the most stable, relatively flat history of losing faith in a religious institution in the past 23 years.

Alternatively, a more notable prove of the resistance to secularization can be found in countries like India where 99.76% of Indians are religious while 0.24% did not state their religious identity (2011 Census).

According to a report by the American Physical Society, religion may die out in New Zealand and eight other Western

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world countries. If current trends persist, those stating no religion will outnumber those who state a religious affiliation by the 2026 census. I would not go so far with predictions for it is more than proved that religiosity – as a human ideal and behavior – was ever present in the human history and it is always needed. Therefore, ‘predictions’ like the above mentioned, that “Religion may become extinct in nine nations in the near future”[17] even proved by the reality of the present trend cannot become a reality that defines humanity. This discrepant contradiction should be accompanied by the clear distinction between religion and religiosity. Being non-religious is not necessarily equivalent to being an atheist or agnostic. The term nones is sometimes used in the U.S. to refer to those who are unaffiliated with any organized religion.

This use derives from surveys of religious affiliation, in which “None” (or “None of the above”) is typically the last choice. Since this status refers to lack of organizational affiliation rather than lack of personal belief, it is a more specific concept than irreligion.

[18] (Endnotes) [1]

[2]

[3]

The rate of technological progress nowadays and the years to come literally places all the human history under a shadow of development. In the light of these rapid growth of development our first six thousand years had shown a flat lined for progress (no progress), when in fact, eighteen to twenty years out, technological advancements will be 4,000 times more advanced then today.

Online source: http://theemergingfuture.com/ speed-technological-advancement.htm.

Docu-Axelerad, Any, Docu-Axelerad, Daniel, ”The Impaired Consciousness,” Proceedings DIALOGO (DIALOGO-CONF 2017 SSC), DOI: 10.18638/dialogo.2017.3.2.13, ISBN: 978-80-554-1338-9, ISSN: 2393-1744, vol.

3,issue 2,pp. 144 - 150, 2016.

Roy Jackson, Mawlana Mawdudi and

Political Islam: Authority and the Islamic State, London and New York: Routledge, 2011, 152.

[4] I will use this word [Church] as a generic label for any religious organization and leadership.

[5] Popescu, Nicolae,”How Can a Confessor Better Call Upon Believers to Achieve Perfection?,” Proceedings DIALOGO (DIALOGO-CONF 2017 SSC), DOI: 10.18638/dialogo.2017.3.2.10, ISBN: 97880-554-1338-9, ISSN: 2393-1744, vol.

3,issue 2,pp. 110 - 124, 2016.

[6] Docu-Axelerad, Any, Docu-Axelerad, Daniel,”The state of being awake,” Proceedings DIALOGO (DIALOGOCONF 2017 SSC), DOI: 10.18638/ dialogo.2017.3.2.16, ISBN: 978-80-5541338-9, ISSN: 2393-1744, vol. 3,issue 2,pp.

168 - 176, 2016.

[7] Russell T. McCutcheon. (ed)., Fabricating Origins. Sheffield, UK, and Bristol, CT: Equinox, Publishing, 2015.

[8] “Religious Diversity (Pluralism)”, 2004, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Retrieved online: https://plato.stanford. edu/entries/religious-pluralism/index. html#PosResRelDiv [9] Adam Dinham, Matthew Francis (edit.), Religious literacy in policy and practice.

Great Britain: Policy Press, 2015, cpt. Two, 27-31.

[10] Manolache Stelian,”The Self-Knowledge and the Phenomenon of Estrangement/Alienation of the Human in Gnosticism,” Proceedings DIALOGO (DIALOGO-CONF 2017 SSC), DOI: 10.18638/dialogo.2017.3.2.2, ISBN: 978-80-554-1338-9, ISSN: 2393-1744, vol.

3,issue 2,pp. 33 - 41, 2016 [11] Peter Kreeft,‎ Ronald Tacelli, Handbook of Catholic Apologetics: Reasoned Answers to Questions of Faith. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1994, 356.

[12] Ibidem.

[13] Nicolae Popescu, ”Church, Society, and Conflict,” Proceedings DIALOGO (Religion and Society: Agreements & Controversies), DOI: 10.18638/dialogo.2016.3.1.9, ISBN: 978-80-554-1285-6, ISSN: 2393-1744, vol.

3,issue 1,pp. 88--103, 2016.

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Peter Kreeft,‎ Ronald Tacelli, Handbook of Catholic Apologetics: Reasoned Answers to Questions of Faith. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1994, 356.

[15] http://www.stats.govt.nz/Census/2013census/profile-and-summary-reports/ quickstats-culture-identity/religion.aspx [16] The Pew Research Center.

[17] h t t p : / / w w w. b b c . c o m / n e w s / s c i e n c e environment-12811197 [18] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreligion.

[14]

a Fulbright scholarship and I spent the summer California and 4 other States in USA, gathering data and understanding how religious pluralism is possible at a high level of involvement; in the same time I made friends from many different countries and religions that are now involved in this project or another, helping in his endeavor.

Biography

Ciocan Tudor Cosmin, born in Constanta/ Romania in 1977, I have attended several theological and psychological schools (BA, MB, PhD), obtained my PhD in Missiology and Doctrinal Theology in 2010. I was ordained as orthodox priest in 2002. Highschool teacher from 1998, then Professor assistant and Lecturer from 2012, I have written more than 30 papers on theology and psychology, along with 4 single author books in the past two decades.

In 2013 I have started a multidisciplinary program aiming to engage scholars from different files into friendly and academic debates with theology and in the same year a Research Center was founded in Ovidius University with researchers from 11 fields. in lest then 1 year I manage to gather people from around the globe around this idea and so we have started Dialogo Conferences project. In 2014 I received

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Overpopulation between Divine Providence and Human Anguish Gheorghe Istodor, PhD

Ovidius University of Constanta, Faculty of Theology Constanta, Romania ARTICLE INFO

ABSTRACT

Article history: Received 24 April 2018 Received in revised form 9 May 2018 Accepted 15 May 2018 Available online 20 June 2018 doi: 10.18638/dialogo.2018.4.2.12

Keywords: overpopulation; divine providence; orthodoxy; malthusianism; neomalthusianism; eugenics; family planning; abortion; population control; desacralization; unchristianizing; secularization;

Overpopulation has become a priority theme on contemporary man’s agenda, raising concern, fear and anxiety at the level of the religiously indifferent, atheist or agnostic man. From an Orthodox Christian perspective, this theme is ideologized and has a profound manipulative character because everything has its beginning, endurance and finality in the work of God full of love for man and creation. Orthodoxy draws attention to the danger of anti-Christian secular practices used for fighting overpopulation, such as Malthusianism, neo-Malthusianism, eugenics, family planning, abortion, or the implementation of population control. God’s care, our full communion with God through authentic spiritual means, social involvement in the favor of the marginalized, and the elimination of excesses of any kind such as over-consumption are the elements from which we must start so that overpopulation can no longer disturb the contemporary man’s tranquility so troubled by the desacralization and unchristianizing. © 2014 RCDST. All rights reserved.

I. Introduction II. INTRODUCTION

Overpopulation, as a topic to be addressed interdisciplinarily, is of obvious importance and timeliness in the context of the current public agenda. It is also a theme of special complexity, because two visions of overpopulation - one Christian and another secular - are outlined, and the approach to the subject compels us to know these two visions thoroughly, in order not to make ungrounded statements.

The first vision, the Christian one, refers to the Creator’s commandment addressed to our forefathers Adam and Eve: “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1: 28). The second vision, the secular one, analyzes overpopulation starting from the meaning given to birth as a purely naturalistic act, the birth being related to the instinct of conservation and especially to the survival of man seen as a species evolved among the others. The relationship between the two perspectives is completely antagonistic: if you are an atheist or agnostic, overpopulation is a threat to the secular

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and autonomous man; if you are a Christian believer, overpopulation is the fulfillment of God’s will with regard to the man created by the Trinitarian love. One can clearly see that it is connected either with the full trust in God’s promise to care for the man built in His image or the fear of extinction of the population because of the ratio between population growth and human development according to the limited resources of the planet. In this perspective, the care of God is substituted with the care of the secular man for humanity [1], care that generates radical measures: eugenics, Malthusianism, neoMalthusianism, population control, etc. The present study aims to: objectively present the two views on overpopulation and to conclude on the possibility of a dialogue between the two visions and to determine whether they can be harmonized.

III. THE ANGUISH OF THE UNBELIEVER, INDIFFERENT MAN. OVERPOPULATION OF THE EARTH

The peculiarity of the unbeliever is to limit his existence only to the sphere of things seen and felt. The unbeliever operates for himself a sinister ideological reductionism: he reduces the entire existence only to the material dimension of creation. He extinguishes, by his own will, any opening to transcendence, the supernatural is eliminated because of its own limitation, selfimposed by the unbeliever. The landmarks of the atheist man are those of “here and now”[2], his experience is impoverished by the lack of transcendence, and this reality is based on the evidence that the supernatural is not in the area of those seen and felt.

Living only on the material and historical dimension of existence, the atheist develops fears and anxieties specific to the man captive in a purely naturalistic reality. His fellow is not his brother, and by overpopulation that one becomes a threat to his existence; life-

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saving resources are not seen as the gift of God to man, but as the object of excessive and autonomous material existence toward God. There is a major discrepancy between the mathematical calculations of the atheist on overpopulation and the increase in the number of people fit with God’s preaching work for the faithful man. As for the first category, that of continuous population growth, it is seen as one of the main causes of environmental problems (climate change, water resource depletion, etc.).

Urban overcrowding is in antagonism with rural depopulation that particularly affects agriculture and can lead to a food crisis. At the same time, cities become inadequate and villages deserted; in this way there are slippages in the operating area of the society. [3] The risk of this perspective is the implementation of laws and measures to control the total number of inhabitants on the Earth. As a theme imposed on the agenda of contemporary man, overcrowding can lead to the escalation of conspiracy theories [4], or to the excessive and abusive use of chemicals or genetically modified organisms in agriculture. These things are already happening, overpopulation is presented as a danger to survival and must be controlled either “naturally” or by legislation.

One can notice the anguish of the atheist. One part of it is overpopulation.

By anxiety we understand an irrational manifestation of a man that generates anxiety and irrationality. There is a noxious relationship between overpopulation and overconsumption, the latter being an extremely irrational manifestation, being a priority of the atheist to excessively consume all that he can. Man’s personal, biological needs become a priority, and he no longer distinguishes between survival and greed. The imbalance becomes a second nature of the atheist, because with greed appear in his life some other passions (unbelief, pride, selfishness, lack of mercy, lack of compassion, etc.) and these become

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an integral part of the contemporary man’s structure. [5] For him, this world comes from nothingness and it is heading towards it, life has no theological significance, but it is just a “cosmic accident” [6]; one cannot talk about the care of God for man and creation.

Assuming anguish over overpopulation on the basis of these passions makes the atheist condemn himself to an unhappy life, and the worst thing is that the whole universe becomes a huge necropolis for him. But even more dangerous remain the means found by him to substantiate overpopulation and to combat its effects.

A. ANTI-CHRISTIAN METHODS AND

PRACTICES AGAINST OVERPOPULATION

There are two levels on which atheist’s efforts are being made about overcrowding/ overpopulation: A level where the idea that overpopulation is real and is a threat to humans is accredited, and the other level is the one on which measures are envisaged to combat the consequences of overpopulation. As far as the first level is concerned, the most well-known and harmful theory that is circulated to substantiate overpopulation as a truth is Malthusianism [7] and related to it, neomalthusianism [8].

Thomas Malthus is the one who dealt with the relationship between population and development and formulated the principle of population in 1798. He assumed that population is necessarily limited by the means of subsistence. He believed that the number of people was invariably growing where livelihoods grew, if the population was not hampered by some obstacles that he reduced to moral abstinence, vice, and misery.

He classifies the obstacles against population growth into two general groups: preventive (voluntary, human) and positive (resulting from the laws of nature). His writings have as main object the population and the economy, as he was captivated by

the political, economic and demographic context of his time. In a reductionist form, Malthus’s conception is known as the famous geometric growth of population and the rise in arithmetic progression of livelihoods. From this relationship appeared the need to master the procreation instinct; he recommends “moral restraint” that manifests itself uncontrollably in the lower classes, with negative effects on the standard of living.

Malthus’s ideas have influenced Charles Darwin’s natural selection theory [9], which shows their strictly naturalistic dimension.

His ideas about population were supported by economic ideas that were refuted by the further development of Western societies. His predictions have been false, both the population and the standard of living have continued to grow in developed countries, and population growth has been inferior to economic growth due to technological progress (underestimated by Malthus), the decline in birth rates relative to income growth, and the introduction of new farming land. In poorer countries there are elements of Malthus’s theory, these post-war countries have faced a demographic explosion and a decline in per capita income. Malthus considers late marriage, contraceptive methods, emigration, and in extreme cases, diseases or wars as factors that can stop population growth. He condemned the laws for the poor in England, and agreed to introducing a wider education system for the poor that should lead to the practice of prudence and cleanliness. Malthus did not anticipate the industrial revolution, the impact of contraceptive methods, or the progress of technology.

His ideas are also found in Nietzsche’s view of the Superman [10], which explains the atheism of those who accept Malthus’s theories. Romanian demographer Vasile Trebici questions the documentation and

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data on which Malthus based his analysis, given that the first population register in England was published only in 1801. The pro and anti Maltussian policies of limiting or stimulating birth rates are consequences unfavorable to the thinking of this economist demographer. Neo-Malthusianism is the postmodern doctrine of Malthusianism and has its center in the prevention of the food crisis. Sexual abstinence, abortion and celibacy are recommended for this purpose and, as a means of repressing - chemical castration and sterilization of those considered inferior from the psychological and somatic point of view.

On the second level, we find the atheist’s measures to combat the consequences of overpopulation. The most well-known measure is eugenics [11], one of the most controversial scientific theories of the last three centuries. In its name, atrocities such as the Nazi genocide of extermination of “inferior races,” and also in its name, it is believed that “true miracles” such as diagnosing and curing genetic diseases are still taking place at the pre-embryonic stage.

Although etymologically it means “good birth,” and although the one who first used the term - Francisc Galton (1883) - proposed by this the “improvement of humanity”, in reality, eugenics creates an unacceptable segregation at human level, distinguishing within the invalid evolutionary science a superior human race. This is achieved either by natural selection that leads to the survival of the strong (in the context of social Darwinism), or by artificial selection based on the laws of heredity discovered

by Gregor Mendel in 1865, which gives a scientific character to selectively assisted reproduction. Galton does nothing but apply the same reasoning to human reproduction.

However, there is a third way, described by the Italian philosopher and poet Tomasso Campanella [12] in the form of utopian communities in which only the elite of the society has the right to procreate. In the Session 2. Religion and OverPopulation

same sense, Galton [13] proposes a system of marriages arranged between distinguished men and wealthy women to create a superior human race. Social Darwinism [14], which claimed that people’s lives in society were governed by the survival of the powerful, helped spread the eugenics into scientific circles in the early 1900s. After the First World War, many scientific authorities and many political leaders supported eugenics. In the U.S., it contributed to the anti-immigration movement of 1910-1920.

In 1926 the American Eugenics Society was set up to create a eugenic movement in America. In 1930, several U.S. states promoted pro-eugenic laws, which led to the forced sterilization of thousands of people.

Only after the Second World War, after the eugenic Nazi programs became known, the eugenic movement lost its popularity and met vehement, anti-eugenic reactions.

Challenges coming from the sphere of neoeugenics are at least as great. Thus, the Human Genome Project [15] began in the late 1980s, and in 2001 it completed its first stage by decoding the whole DNA sequence of the human genome. The stated goal is the prevention of venereal diseases in the intrauterine stage of the zygote, but genetic modifications of the zygote may also be performed by choosing only the desired characteristics, by so-called “programmed genes”; so, parents can decide the color of the eyes, the type of hair, the shape of the face, the height, strength, intelligence, etc. that the child will inherit. Father John Breck draws attention to the consequences of this new genetic movement, confirming the real possibility of programming the life code [16]. Neo-eugenics is the basis of population control by selective multiplication in the name of improving the heredity of the human race, and at its core are atheistic and materialistic principles. From a Christian perspective, eugenics is and remains the wrong path to perfection and immortality that the secular man chose to follow. The

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atheist “claimed” from God the right to life and death. The principles of eugenics are often used in favor of forced sterilization and abortion. Abortion [17] is the most common way to combat overcrowding.

Whether we are talking about therapeutic abortion or voluntary abortion, it essentially remains a criminal act suppressing human life. Abortion is not allowed by God, but is wanted by the secular-atheist man who became the core of the secular medicine and an important part of the secular social understanding of responsible parenting.

This refers to encouraging parents not to face the challenge of love and the concern of a child with severe defects or disabilities.

Prenatal screening and abortion are mostly responsible for birth control. In Romania, the main causes for abortion are: limiting the number of children and poor material conditions. Worldwide, abortion is justified by pseudo-scientific arguments such as the assertion that a fetus is not a human in the first weeks of conception because it has no memory and its main nervous paths are not fully formed; so, the baby would not perceive the messages of pain, which would lead to the conclusion that it is not a full man. New research in the field reveals the opposite and certifies what scripture makes clear that the baby is a full man at the moment of conception. Furthermore, it has been found experimentally that the fetus can record memories just before brain formation, that is, from the first 4 weeks.

Pro-abortive policies of developed countries show the major discrepancy between rights and responsibilities. Rights are imperiously voiced by all minority categories; in terms of responsibilities, they are not claimed because a fundamental feature of postmodern man is the tendency to ignore the consequences of the acts committed. With regard to children, there is a real antagonism between the rights of born and unborn children. Practically, the unborn have no right and are not protected

by any law being at the mercy and decision of the parent and physician who no longer believe in the sacredness of human life. To all these can be added the harmful effects of abortion on women at the psychosomatic level. Even if there are countries - like Romania - where post-abortion syndrome is not recognized, the belief that abortion affects women’s mental health has strengthened over time [23]. Last but not least, we should remember that woman is the only being who resorts to the abortive act, the animal world being alien to this approach.

Another means of combating overcrowding, in relation to abortion, is family or parental planning [18]. This essentially means family planning through human intervention (physical, technical or spiritual in a natural sense) on procreation.

Its action is to fix the moment of procreation by diminishing, suspending or destroying the person’s fecundity. Based on man’s planning, he acquires the right to separate the act of love from its consequences; thus, man seeks to obtain pleasure as an end in itself. Along with adultery, divorce, abortion, contraception and prostitution, planning is part of a new, atheistic human civilization marked by hedonism and utilitarianism. It cultivates excessively the instinct and makes it dominate the spirit and the human person, degrading the essence of the conjugal bond. It leads to a distortion and a perversion of human love.

At its base is the prejudice that most human beings reproduce without discernment.

Returning to population control through birth control, there are premises of a world tyranny, abuses of the strong against the weak, in the name of an imaginary threat called overpopulation.

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IV. THE CHRISTIAN VISION OF OVERPOPULATION. DIVINE PROVIDENCE

From the Christian point of view, overpopulation is neither a threat nor a danger to human life and happiness. It is strictly related to the care of God and the plan of salvation of man. This plan of deification of the creation and of the human being is not thwarted by the sin that has been introduced into the world; it only makes it possible for Providence to take into account the conditions of the state of sin of mankind. Thus, providence preserves and leads the world even in sin. Although God’s initiative and role are predominant, however, in this providence action, He does not work alone, but in conjunction with human action. This fact highlights the role of God in man’s and world’s becoming, not as a world’s simply conservative God - in some essentially cyclical forms, but as a God of a world called to the perfection of life in union with Him. This providence work is linked to the “new” category by excellence: “Behold, I am making all things new” (Revelation 21: 5).

This is the final perspective that God opens to us. But in view of this final news, people must become new from now on. [19] Orthodox theology identifies three aspects of Divine Providence. [20] In this sense, we see that the three aspects of the divine Pronunciation show us the work of God, first of all preserving creation by keeping the unchanged identity of the whole creation seen, by virtue of the fact that it is the result of His work. Secondly, Divine Providence is the co-operation of God with the whole universe and with every part of it to reach their purpose. And the third aspect of Divine Providence regards the leadership of the world to their ultimate goal, the new heaven, and the new earth of the Kingdom of God. [21] The Pronunciation of God transcends

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a certain foundation of man in sin, in selfishness, in anxiety, or in the loss of the meaning of life. It is a dynamic and at the same time God-loving work toward man and creation, and man’s response must be in this direction, towards God, others and the rest of creation. In the divine pronouncement man is valued, he is a person with freedom, reason, will and responsibility, is not depersonalized and treated only as a number in a statistic, or as single biological material that can be manipulated or modified genetically. Therefore, in the Christian sense, the multiplication of man is not a danger or a challenge, but a fulfillment of the primordial commandment of God. Christianity, especially Orthodoxy, does not subscribe to the imposition on the public agenda of man without God, of overpopulation with its unfavorable methods and consequences.

CONCLUSION Overpopulation revolves between manipulated care up to the obsession and the acceptance of methods that can lead to aggression and murder towards the defenseless man. The two visions - secular and Christian are irreconcilable: human life, his destiny and human dignity are the gift of God and cannot be negotiated according to human or secular interests. Christian teaching and morals cannot agree with the practices of preventing and combating overpopulation, which they regard as anti-human, dangerous to the life and safety of contemporary man. The alternative to these from a Christian point of view refers, on the one hand, to the return to communion with God through faith, good deeds, responsibility, being able to eliminate the concerns of overpopulation and, on the other hand, greater social involvement of all.

Christian responsibility also has “jurisdiction” with regard to this life, not just the future life.

From the Christian point of view, the factor of quality and safety of life, of non-ideologized human rights, of equality of chances as the gift of

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God, etc. is of great importance. Christian values include everything that man needs in order to be happy and fulfilled in this life, not just in the future life. The Christian sees a threat in the excesses that degrade human life, such as overconsumption, and not in the overpopulation of the planet with humans in the image and likeness of God, equal to our brothers and fellow men.

REFERENCES [1] N. Velimirovici, Answers to the questions of today’s world: missionary letters, (Bucureşti: Editura Sophia, 2002), 120-21.

[2] The atheist remains the prisoner of an “ideological triad” made up of naturalism, materialism and atheism. The three ideologies affect openness to transcendence, but it cannot definitively excrete it, so that the possibility of liberation from this “activity” remains a perpetual chance.

[3] Gail Kligman, The policy of duplicity: controlling reproduction in Ceausescu’s Romania, (Bucureşti: Humanitas, 2000), 203.

[4] In the theories of conspiracy, we include: New Global Order, Monarch Program, Subliminal Advertising, etc..

[5] This explains the spiritual effort required by the Church for the justification of man as the first stage of salvation.

[6] See Jacques Monod, Chance and necessity, (Bucureşti: Editura Humanitas, 1991).

[7] See Rober Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population, (Bucureşti: Editura ştiinţifică, 1992); Warren Simpson Thompson, Population; A Study in Malthusianism, (London: Fb&c Limited, 2017); Brian Dolan, Malthus, Medicine & Morality: Malthusianism After 1798, (Amsterdam, Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, 2000).

[8] See Richard Ussher, Neo-Malthusianism, (Charleston, South Carolina: BiblioBazaar, 2009); Raymond Joseph McHugh, NeoMalthusianism in the Progressive Era, (Stanford: Department of History, Stanford University, 1961).

[9] Natural selection is the strictly naturalistic proclamation of the atheist and agnostic man on a way of functioning of life in the universe without the involvement of God; see (Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species, Massachusetts: Marblehead, Trajectory Classics, 2014).

[10] Nietzsche’s Superman is the deification of the human rebellious against God who is declared dead; see Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too

Human: A Book for Free Spirits, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996); R. J. Hollingdale, Nietzsche: The Man and His Philosophy, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001).

[11] See Nicolae Sfetcu, Eugenics: Past, Present, Future, (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2018); Richard Lynn, Eugenics: A Reassessment, (Westport: Connecticut, Praeger, 2001).

[12] See Tomasso Campenella, The City of the Sun, (New York: Cosmio, 2007).

[13] See Francis Galton, Hereditary Genius, (San Francisco, CA: Blurb, Incorporated, 2017).

[14] Social Darwinism is the basis of criminal tyranny like Nazism and Communism.

[15] See Ieromonah Grigore Sandu, Evolution towards the Creator, (Craiova: Editura Mitropoliei Olteniei, 2003) [16] See John Breck, God with Us: Critical Issues in Christian Life and Faith, (Crestwood, New York: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2003).

[17] See Gheorghe Istodor, Introduction to the Orthodox Missionology), (Bucureşti: Editura Do Minor, 2009), 121-44.

[18] Deborah Maine, Family Planning: Its Impact on the Health of Women and Children, (New York: Center for Population and Family Health, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, 1981) [19] Dumitru Stăniloae, The Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, vol. 1, (Bucureşti: Editura Institutului Biblic şi De Misiune al BOR, 1996), pp. 335-41.

[20] Vladimir Lossky, The mystical theology of the Eastern Church, (Bucureşti: Editura Anastasia, 1992), 132.

[21] See Nikolai Berdiaev, The meaning of the creative act, (Bucureşti: Humanitas, 1992).

[22] Docu, Any Axelerad, Docu-Axelerad, Daniel, CIOCAN, Cosmin Tudor, Sapte, Elena,”Confusional state,” Proceedings DIALOGO (DIALOGO-CONF 2017), DOI: 10.18638/dialogo.2017.4.1.16, ISBN: 9978-80554-1408-9, ISSN: 2393-1744, vol. 4,issue 1,pp.

177 - 182, 2017 [23] Docu, Any Axelerad, Docu-Axelerad, Daniel, CIOCAN, Cosmin Tudor, Sapte, Elena,”Dementia, Clinical Aspects,” Proceedings DIALOGO (DIALOGO-CONF 2017), DOI: 10.18638/dialogo.2017.4.1.17, ISBN: 9978-80554-1408-9, ISSN: 2393-1744, vol. 4,issue 1,pp.

183 - 187, 2017

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Reflection on the basic presuppositions of a democratic renewal in the Muslim world in a context of globalization Traore Kassoum, PhD

Université Péléforo Gon Coulibaly de Korhogo UFR des sciences sociales/Département de Sociologie Côte d’Ivoire

ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 30 April 2018 Received in revised form 14 May 2018 Accepted 15 May 2018 Available online 20 June 2018 doi: 10.18638/dialogo.2018.4.2.13

Keywords: basic assumptions; renewal; Muslim world; globalization;

Memon FOFANA, PhD

Université Péléforo Gon Coulibaly de Korhogo UFR des sciences sociales/Département de Sociologie Côte d’Ivoire

ABSTRACT

“To braid a mat with sand as raw material or to make sand with a mat” is the enigma that the young people of a village should solve in 24 hours, on pain of suffering the wrath of a genius. In fact, according to a Yacouba 1myth, the young men of a village had, according to the fallacious pretext, decided to put to death all the old and wise considered from now on impotent and uncomfortable. But the young Ngnubo2 hid his in an attic, which escaped the holocaust. This is the new way of manufacturing, structuring and legitimizing the present social world, if we replace the old and wise (of whom the myth speaks) by Muslim societies and its actors. Indeed, if we say willingly that the nineteenth century was marked by a State-Nation conflict and the twentieth century by the clash of symbolic thoughts, the 21st century seems likely to be that of civilizational shock, because the boundaries between culture and religion are now lines of fracture or at least homes of ethnicization. However, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism have brought about the dialectisation and the coming together of all social relations under the name of democratization. However, the growing instability of the Muslim world (armed war, terrorism, foreign occupation ...) shows that the Muslim world is struggling to marry or fit into the model of democratization. It is on this basis that the present work tries, through the multiplication of the angles of view, to analyze the basic presuppositions slowing democratization in the Muslim world.

1 An ethnic group from western Côte d’Ivoire.

2 Ngnudo means wisdom in the Yacouba language of the western Ivorian. This myth has been reported by Professor Dedy Seri, socio anthropologist, research professor at the University Felix Houphouet Boigny de Cocody (Ivory Coast). © 2014 RCDST. All rights reserved.

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I. Introduction

The weakness of democracy in the Arab world has materialized by the growing instability of the Muslim world (armed warfare, verbal conflict, blockade formation, foreign occupation ... ..) and the schematization of two processes with variants. These variants are summed up by a tendency towards the integration of the Muslim world into international institutions and a tendency towards social, identity and civilization differentiation, even cultural more or less accentuated, sometimes going as far as setting aside the Muslim world.

From this point of view, we feel that we are witnessing the formation of ideologies and threats to tarnish Islamic culture and identity on a global scale. For a long time to remain inoperative in the face of these growing forms of threats, which weaken the image of Islam, this situation deserves a deep analysis. So, what are the preconditions for the sustainable democratization of the Arab world? In order to capture the purpose of the study in all its significant articulations, the goal of this paper is to analyze the history of the relationship between the Western world and the Muslim world. This analysis of history makes it possible to fix the dimensions of our object of study which is the construction of preconditions for a democratization of the Arab world.

II. Methodology

The study focused on the qualitative approach based on the comprehensive approach of the facts based on the documentary review, reported surveys, information and activity documents from various sources and reliable to better understand the subject. In addition, the print and audiovisual media have been a real source of data that has made it possible to better analyze the situation. The careful exploitation of all these writings has made

it possible to make a relevant analysis of the situation of democracy in the Arab world and the resulting dynamics. The comparative analysis of the Western world and the Islamic world has made it possible to identify basic assumptions for the democratization of the Arab world.

III. Results

So long as the night is, dawn will come!

Teach the wise. This ethic requires social being the art of knowing how to wait and the refusal to die that builds the faith of the charcoal, the faith of the innocent and the insight of the builders of the future. He devotes the will to overcome the fatality of “genealogical unhappiness”: this condition which makes that outside of domestic spaces, certain origins and convictions assimilate us to beings without quality, to whom nothing is never promised, nothing is never given, nor facility. However, prisoners of hope, we must trace and build our paths on our knees in the silence and isolation of lack (Laciné Sylla 2008, 18-47,). This wisdom teaches us that it is possible to impose and assert oneself on the world stage.

In Western Europe, much more than elsewhere, the formation of the nationstate, the advent of democracy with the universalization of electoral suffrage, the promotion of citizenship and human rights, as well as the emergence of a middle class and a diverse civil society, have gone hand in hand with industrialization and the development of capitalism, urbanization and the emergence of multiple social classes, socio-professional groups and trade unions, pressure, interest group and various associations, ready to be mobilized for social and political struggles; and the dignity of the human person and peoples.

This European case shows us well how the existence of a culturally and ethnically homogeneous society on the one hand,

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and the emergence of a large middle class, conscious, independent and dynamic on the other, are able to create a society equally independent and dynamic civil society, to constitute the bases of globalization and sustainable awakening in time and space. Starting from the foregoing, some structuring lines of thought emerge for the success of the challenge for the Muslim world. These lines of thought are translated here into a basic precondition or presupposition:

It is about a consensus between the state and society and agreement between rulers and governed, and the project of society that gives meaning to the development of the process of democratization or revival of the Islamic world. This part requires the existence of a united community, a national feeling and a Muslim inter-nation. Finally, it is about an agreement between the political actors on the institutions that govern them, with the possibility for the elites to save this consensus.

A. First basic assumption: a strong Moslem

C. Third basic assumption: the absence of

The first track for the democratization of a strong Muslim world is first and foremost the existence of a strong civil society whose members are able to understand the functioning of the democratic game.

Subsequently, they enjoy fundamental human rights, civil and political freedoms such as freedom of expression, freedom of conscience, thought, opinion, freedom from arrest and arbitrary detention. Here, the civil society must be considered in its relations with the dynamics created by the behaviors of these social aggregates that is to say as a social force, mobilization and collective action. This civil society must be strong enough to constitute a real place of ideological counterpoint to Western society, because a weak civil society in this world dominated by the West has most often led to authoritarianism. Except a strong Muslim civil society can contribute to the process of democratization. Therefore, it is necessary to have strong governors and a strong army to succeed this bet.

The third recommendation track is the absence of major conflicts, inner and outer peace. This is the absence of major social conflicts, religious or ethnic conflicts, or even class conflicts that could undermine the consensual basis of solidarity, conflicts that the political elites would have been unable to overcome. to engender the various forms of authoritarianism and foreign occupation.

society, a rule of law and a unique culture

B. Second basic assumption: consensus

between ruler and ruled of the Muslim world

The second track is the consensus between rulers and ruled in the Muslim world.

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major confits, inner and outer peace

D. Fourth basic assumption: general

consensus in the mode of governance

The fourth track is that of a general consensus on the mode of governance. What we mean here is that all Muslim nations have the same vision of government or political structuring. Indeed, according to Western ideology, Islam would be fundamentally incompatible with democracy seen in the Western world because of the triple confusion it makes between religion, the state and civil society.

Of course, the majority of Western countries share almost the same form of government, which is not the case in the Muslim world. Of the 21 Muslim states, apart from Palestine, we have seven (6) absolute monarchies (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar),

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two (2) constitutional monarchies (Jordan, Morocco); four (4) Islamic republics (Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Mauritania); eight (8) authoritarian type presidential regimes including military dictatorships and personal or patrimonial dictatorships of single or ultra-dominant party such as the Baath Party (Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan), finally a (1) parliamentary regime (Lebanon). This differentiation in forms of government is a democratic weakness for the Muslim world.

It is therefore necessary to focus on socioeconomic development.

Conclusion In the light of the reflection on the basic presuppositions of a revival in the Muslim world in a context of globalization, our method has reviewed the history and the functioning of the relations between the Islamic world and the Western world, in order to identify and to extract from their operation the series of conditions which, four in number, seem most favorable to an Islamic revival lasting in time and space. The aim was to determine the principles, values and institutions that contribute permanently and universally to the democratization of the Arab world. Thus, the dialectical and symbiotic link between the values, institutions and preconditions for Islamic revival are essential to the existence and the harmonious continuity of the Islamic world.

Bibliographical references [1]

[2]

[3]

Alby, Sarah et Balouka, Beltrande 2011. Le regard des Européens sur l’Islam, Pairs, IFOP, 1-14 Allievi, Stefano 1998. Les convertis à l’islam.

Les nouveaux musulmans de l’Europe, Paris l’Harmattan, 376-384 Baubérot, Jean et Milot, Micheline 2011.

Laïcités sans frontières, Paris, Seuil 2011, 338 p.

Baulin Jacques 1982. La politique intérieure d’Houphouët-Boigny. Paris, Eurafor-Press. 23 -34 [5] Bobineau, olivier, Tank-Storper, Sébastien et Singly, François 2007. Sociologie des religions, Paris, Armand Collin, 117-128.

[6] Boubaker, Dalil 1995. Charte du culte musulman en France, Paris, Editions du rocher / Mosquée, Paris, 11-27 [7] Boulaabi, Abderraouf 2005. Islam et Pouvoir.

Les finalités de la Charia et la légitimité du pouvoir, Paris, l’Harmattan, 1-6 [8] Bozzo, Anna et Luizard, Pière-Jean 2011. Les sociétés civiles dans le monde musulman. La Découverte, coll. « textes à l’appui/islam et société, Paris, 469-473., [9] De libéra, Alain. 2000. L’Islam et la raison. Anthologie des textes juridiques, Théologiques et polémiques, [dans] Averroès, Paris, Flammarion, n° 1132, 216-224.

[10] Duthu, Françoise 2008. Le maire et la mosquée. Islam et laïcité en Ile-de-France, Paris : l’Harmattan, 135-138 [11] ÉduSCOL 2012. Quels liens sociaux dans des sociétés où s’affirme le primat de l’individu ?, Sciences économiques et sociales – Terminale ES Enseignement spécifique Sociologie Thème n°2 : Intégration, conflit, changement social ; Fiche 2.1, 7-9: [12] Goldman, Henri 2012. Le rejet français de l’islam. Une souffrance républicaine. Paris : Puff, 46-78 [13] Laciné Sylla (2008)., Existe-t-il un modèle universel de démocratie ? Les éditions du CERAP, Abidjan, 18-47 [14] Rachid Id Yassine 2012. “Islam et Régionalisme Européen, Territoire, religion et identité en Catalogne française”, Thèse de doctorat en Sociologie, Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales, université de Perpignan via Domitia [15] Urvoy, Dominique 1980. Penser l’Islam. Les présupposés islamiques de l’art’ de lull. Paris : Vrin, 53-59 [4]

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The Virtual International Conference on the Dialogue between Science and Theology. (DIALOGO-CONF 2018 ORI)

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Wise religious education, as a solution for overpopulation crisis Dmitri Delistoian, Phd. Candidate

Viorel-Bogdan Radoiu, PhD

Faculty of Naval Electro mechanics Maritime University of Constanta Romania

Faculty of Mechanical, Industrial and Maritime Engineering Ovidius University of Constanta Romania

Mihael Chircor , PhD

Faculty of Mechanical, Industrial and Maritime Engineering Ovidius University of Constanta Romania ARTICLE INFO

Article history: Received 4 May 2018 Received in revised form 14 May 2018 Accepted 15 May 2018 Available online 20 June 2018 doi: 10.18638/dialogo.2018.4.2.14

Keywords: religion; humanism; overpopulation; avortion; sexual revolution; contraception; wisdom; education;

ABSTRACT

In the modern world, religious education is something old, not fashionable. Every day the younger generation is educated in the spirit of humanism. After the planting of these kind teachings, in the prime of technical and intellectual progress the modern society is not finding solutions to such global issues as overpopulation. Slowly but surely, society is immersed in chaos. The single and time-tested solution is God’s wisdom from the pages of the Holy Scriptures. It means, teachings given by God, not a confessional one-sidedness. © 2014 RCDST. All rights reserved.

I. DOES RELIGION AFFECT POPULATION

GROWTH?

During the centuries of life on Earth, the problem of overpopulation is the leading among all global problems. The number, composition, movement of the population and socio-economic phenomena are interrelated and interdependent.

Humanity in the person of different states, tries to regulate the processes of the development of societies, the production of means for life, the creation of conditions for a decent standard of living, and the reproduction processes associated with procreation. According to modern scientists, the global population problem is not only and not so much in the growth

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or stabilization of the world’s population in general, but in the uneven growth of this number in different countries and regions due to the characteristics of demographic and socio-economic processes.

The population increase is mainly due to developing countries, which inevitably leads to the restructuring of the social structure of society. In the world, the highest rate of population growth in the countries of the Arab world. In general, the population of Arab countries is about 5% of the world’s population. Over the past 50 years, this share has doubled [1]. In Arab countries, the population is younger and the birth rate is higher than in Europe and the United States.

Despite the fact that the rates of maternal mortality, infant mortality, a consistently high birth rate that exceeds the high agespecific mortality rate, provides positive natural population growth in the Arab world and in other developing countries.

It is possible to assume that healthcare successes, implemented in the developing countries will reduce the death rate and will lead to the fact that children will survive and health education will allow women to apply methods of contraception and regulate the number of births.

However, practice proves the contrary, namely that national and religious traditions will not allow families to have children less than is accepted in this society. Reproductive attitudes are formed under the influence of cultural, religious, ethical, educational, socioeconomic, legal factors. The socio-economic conditions, religion, family functions, education and employment for the majority of the population remain connected with the traditional way of life and affect reproductive behavior. That is why the demographic policy in the underdeveloped countries has specific features and faces difficulties in implementing family planning programs, and the increase in the birth rate in economically developed countries is

difficult.

II. CHILDREN ARE A HERITAGE FROM

THE LORD

Despite their doctrinal differences, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism show a striking unanimity on the issue of demography: all of them encourage the birth of children, because it is recognized as an indisputable good for the family.

The more children are considered that this family is blessed by God: “Lo, children are a heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.” (Psalms 127:3) [2].

There is also a categorical ban on abortion in all respected religious traditions. For example, in Europe, two states - Malta and the Vatican - do not allow abortion under any circumstances; Ireland, Andorra, San Marino and Monaco allow abortion only in case of threat to the life of a pregnant woman. In most Muslim countries in Asia, as expected, abortion is allowed only to save the life of a pregnant woman. As for Latin America, here the prohibitive legislation prevails. Only in two countries – Cuba and Guyana give the right to women to abort pregnancy, if the woman wants it[3].

It is proved that the more religious a society is or the more religious some part of this society is, the higher is the birth rate in it. For example, in Israel, the highest birthrate among Orthodox Jews, who rarely have less than 5 children in the family. It is possible that in the future only because of their children Israel will remain as an ethnically Jewish state [4]. The same can be said about Muslims. However, this is not a consequence of polygamy: only a quarter of a percent of Muslims have 4 wives, and only 25% of Muslims have more than one wife. The high population growth in Muslim countries is due primarily to the high religiosity of the population, while the demographic problems of European countries are due to the moral

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degradation of the so-called “post-Christian society,” rather than economic factors.

Those Christian countries or communities where high religiosity was preserved show as much growth in the population as in Muslim countries. Thus, in the Christian part of Bosnia and Herzegovina - the Republic of Srpska - the birthrate of Orthodox Serbs is higher than that of their Bosnian Muslim neighbors [5].

III. THE REPERCUSSION OF THE SEXUAL

REVOLUTION

According to World Health Organization, through the family planning, people and couples can provide and have the desired number of children, as well as determine the time of their birth and the time intervals between births. This is achieved through the use of methods of contraception and the treatment of unintentional infertility.

In present days, the contraception has long left the family (planning) and affects all segments of a person’s life, starting from the moment of puberty (sex education).

As observed, contraception is a keyword for family planning and for sex education (Fig.1).

Fig. 1 Contraception is the progenitor for family planning and for sex education

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Until the 20th century, education was predominantly ecclesiastical, and issues of sex education were considered from the point of view of prevailing religious dogmas.

The main was to convey to the child moral attitudes, moral norms, traditional family values, in the sexual life itself. Chastity was a priority. Earlier, people understood the difference between a man and a woman, they knew that their union was unique and unlike any other relationship. Boys became men, and girls became women, it was selfevident. Childish innocence was priceless, and certain behavior was unacceptable; unacceptably behaved only people whose prudence was in doubt.

New standards of sexual education are taken as a basis for the development of the 50’s by Alfred Kinsey [6]. He experimentally determined that children of any age react to sexual stimuli and achieve orgasm. I want to repeat – “experimentally determined” and “children of any age”. This “gave” him the right to call the child sexual at any stage of his life. Kinsey’s anti-scientific conclusions have been repeatedly criticized by specialists, but these conclusions formed the basis for the standards of sexual education.

The sexual revolution that has taken place in Western Europe and the US in the late 60’s and early 70’s., which included sex education of schoolchildren, contributed to the destruction of the barrier between generations. Parents of the sixties, enlightening their children, didn’t go further than the theory, because they themselves were brought up quite traditionally. Their children, the current parents, formed during the sexual revolution era, which is often called the “era of erasing the faces.”

During this time, the post-sexual generation had time to grow up. The boundaries of the permitted continue to expand. As a result, one of the main conclusions of the Humanist Manifesto II was the next: “Faith in God is groundless. Traditional

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moral values cannot meet the urgent needs of modern man.” One of the signatories was Alan F. Guttmacher, president at that time of International Planned Parenthood Federation [7].

Many years ago, Fyodor Dostoevsky proclaimed, the following, can be said prophecy: “The revolt will begin with atheism and robbery of all riches, begin to downgrade religion, destroy temples and turn them into barracks and stalls, they will fill the world with blood and then they themselves will get scared. Blood was flooded, but was not frightened, because in the souls there was no longer God, and so there was neither repentance nor fear of sin.”

As the saying goes, statistics is a stubborn thing. Following statistics since the 1970s, the population state of the countries which laid the foundation for the sexual revolution is the next: • In Unites States of America, abortion rate in 1970 was 20 abortions/1000 populations but in 1983 becomes 102 abortions / 1000 population. This has happened only in 10 years [8]; • According to the International Agency for Research of Cancer, the growth of cancer, the risk of breast cancer in women who regularly use contraceptive pills, increases up to 70% [9]; • Growth of homosexuality.

According to Statistics Portal, in US in 1977, percent of people are born gay it was 13% but in 2016 becomes 46% [10]. Following the example of England, in some states of America, homosexuals have recently started to be married in the church (i.e., the church has significantly surrendered its position, for it ceased to consider sodomy to be a sin); • A high proportion of illegitimate children and, accordingly, distortion of upbringing, psychological problems. In Sweden, illegitimate children 55% in France

- 50%, the UK - 44%, Norway - 54% [11].

The list can continue with examples such as, number of nervous-psychic illnesses, sexual abuse, growth of child and adolescent drug addiction, high percentage of rapes.

Fig.2 Whirlpool of the sexual revolution

After disappointing statistics, the question appears: According to new principles of life, how morality can be defined? or What is the state of health of the family or of the entire nation?

If there is no God, what can be a measure of the spiritual state? If there is no constitution in the country, then what will happen to the population of this country?

IV. THE PLACE OF WISE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN THE MODERN WORLD

Concerning religious education in the secular world, a whole series of questions arises, which are not and, apparently; there can be no definitive and unequivocal answers either among educators or among theologians. There are different opinions as to what is the subject of religious education, who determines its content, goals and objectives, what is secular religious education, etc. This diversity of approaches was structured by the professor of the University of Birmingham, Michael Grimmitt, who proposed to distinguish three ways of obtaining religious education [12]:

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1. learning religion; 2. learning about religion; 3. learning from religion; The first way corresponds to the introspective, practically corresponding to the concept of catechetical education and realized in the form of the “Law of God.” The second and third - as a ways of secular religious education, “not burdened with confessional interests.” Focusing on the third form – learning from religion, religion in this case appears not so much in the role of the object of observation and analysis, but rather as a resource of personal development.

Touching on religion, what is happening in the camp of God? What was the concept of religious education in the chosen people of the God? Set aside religious extremism and fundamentalism, just God’s model on the pages of the Holy Scripture.

The Jewish family was traditional and closely united, but above all, it was fundamentally religious. From generation to generation, Jewish traditions were passed along an unceasing chain from parents to children: “Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons.”(Deuteronomy 4:9) [13]. Trough family was built Jewish virtue, and through him was transmitted the teachings of the Torah. As a result, the Jewish family became an indestructible fortress protecting the Jewish religion and way of life. The uniqueness of Jewish education was and is that God was always in the center of his attention. The main emphasis was on high moral requirements for behavior. A healthy family in terms of spirituality and physical health is a natural element that forms the basis of the country’s society. Thanks to her,

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a population balance develops, avoiding harmful elements such as abortions, singleparent children, and others.

The main goal of the upbringing of children in the Holy Scriptures is the inculcation of wisdom, a pious way of life through verbal and physical discipline. The descriptions of wisdom in Proverbs 1: 1-7 give us the purpose of the book. Discipline (verse 1) implies “self-management or selfcontrol.” Distinguishing (verse 2) in life is the ability to distinguish between true and false, bad from good, healthy from harmful.

While, discernment (verse. 2) is the ability to distinguish between good and evil, moral discernment is the ability to make right decisions based on the consequences of behavior in the past. Wisdom is designed to prepare a person to live according to the Scriptures. And wisdom can be taught, for a child it begins with the parental guidance.

Wisdom is a prism, from which comes the light of parent education. Her instrument, the main tool of parental education, is in the message. Specific rules and regulations indicate how obedience should manifest itself: “My son, keep the father’s commandament , and forsake not the law of thy mother. Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.”[14]. The Bible is full of examples of how the Lord cares for his children and the result on the face, the Israeli people one of the dilapidated nationalities who retained their identity in comparison with the Philistines, the Assyrians, and did not fade in time. As shown, God as a loving Father wants us to learn from him and to live a balancing life.

At present, modern civilization is at the crossroads; in fact he remained alone, without God. According to Humanist Manifesto II were proclaimed the next: “No deity will save us; we must save ourselves.”

I was happened in 1973. Over the years, our society is in a deadlock without real

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solutions to solve the problems of nonuniform overpopulation, sexual abuse or abortions without number (legal human slaughterhouse).

Biblical-based education can heal the present society and stop that whirlpool that destroys lives and generations. This means that religious education should be a source of morality and wisdom and not a confessional kitsch which represents the character of God in the wrong light.

V. …because God is love

From the organization of family planning depends the health of the women, children and even of the nation.

What does the Bible say about such a thing as family planning? When the Lord created and blessed the first couple, He blessed them with special words: “Be fruitful, and multiply…” (Genesis1:28) [15]. The woman had excellent health and could perform the function of procreation many times. God’s plan for the reproduction of the human race from the beginning was somewhat different than what we see today. The female organism was adapted to perform rhythmically its function of procreation. The woman was able to become pregnant only after the period of feeding the child. This ability persisted for a long time. But as the sin increased, the human body weakened, and, from century to century, more and more profound violations in the systems of female and male organisms, which led to serious changes in the functions of both systems, penetrated. The life of a man began to shorten, he lost his original beauty, and he became less growth. The chain stretched and its links touched and the function of procreation.

In recent years, mothers in 70% of cases have no breast milk, sufficient for feeding the baby, hormonal restructuring is much faster, and the ability to get pregnant again

comes just after the birth. This unplanned pregnancy contributes to the birth of a weakened, frail child who, with frequent illnesses, leads the young mother to a stressful condition and constant lack of sleep and again - the threat of pregnancy, the birth of a weak child, artificial feeding, etc. Parents have no right even to think about increasing the family in the absence of appropriate conditions that the Lord should not be dishonored by uneducated children and unhappy families.

The Lord has never instructed a man to procreate weak, unhappy children who are not getting enough affection, love and parents attention because they are burdened by a large family. The Lord doesn’t want families to have relationships based on lust. The desire to save his wife’s health, to have as many children as he can educate true and faithful believers and obedient citizens, is commendable for a man, for a loving husband. He should not put this burden on only the fragile shoulders of his wife. Love will not let suffer and worry only one half. Best of all is the family council and the advice from planning specialist. In addressing family planning issues, it is need to be honest with God and each other. Open conversation, gentle care, careful attitudes to each other will greatly facilitate the understanding of husband and wife, will open new deep of feelings and bring back physical and spiritual intimacy, which are connected among them by the Creator.

But the fact remains a fact: Abortion is an unacceptable way to stop pregnancy, because is a violation of the sixth commandment “Do not kill.”(Exodus 20:13)[16]. Development of the psyche and personality begins with the 8th day of conception, when during the next three months (first trimester), active multiplication of brain cells occurs at a rate of 250,000 cells per minute [17]. The mother’s state is transmitted to the fetus and a prolonged

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stressful state and various experiences (for example, unwillingness to have this child) leave a trace in the psyche of a small person.

“Conflict of rejection” or unwillingness to have a child can be the cause of the inferiority complex of the future person, it will manifest itself in any sphere of behavior or relationships. Abortion as a surgical intervention to save lives according to the doctors’ testimony is perceived as saving lives, and in such cases the decision is made by both parents, relying on God and on their faith and conscience. But abortion for family planning is unacceptable and is murder.

There are many different types of contraception. Please pay attention, is about contraception within the family, not for teenagers. The couple should carefully study these methods and discuss the types of protection acceptable to them in order to be confident and calm in their relationships.

After all, nothing so dangerous for sexual relations in the family, as fear of unplanned pregnancy.

Sometimes this brings spouses (especially women) to stress, a lack of understanding of the cooling in the relationship. God created a family for mutual pleasure and joy, so specialist task is to give advice on how to keep the joy in the marriage and avoid fear.

In same time, Scripture does not leave a person in uncertainty and provides education from God. So Bible the Bible defines marriage as something undefiled: “Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled …” (Hebrews 13:4) [18]and the principles of healthy relationship are expressed in the following verses: “Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife. Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and

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come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.” (1 Corinthians 7:3-5) [19]. As shown above, the Scriptures say that we should not refuse to be intimate with the wife / husband, except when it is necessary to do but by mutual consent for a short time. Why? Because the violation of this commandment, puts marriage in risk of temptation. All these principles should be observed in practice, in marriage life and as result family will be happy.

Fig.3 Abortion vs. fetus

God’s wisdom for man is like a tree planted by the rivers of water. Suffice it to mention about King Solomon, who, by the way, is the author of the Book of Proverbs. God asked him what to give him. Solomon had already shown certain wisdom when he asked for neither riches, nor fame, nor anything material, he asked for something that at first glance does not apply to the material world at all. He asked God for wisdom. And he hit the “target”, because thanks to the wisdom, he became a prosperous man.

The same perspective God offers to modern society, only need to stop and turn gaze to God. The current problems of society have roots in moral values and principles. As demonstrated above, when God’s principles were exceeded, the diagrams continue to grow.

Overpopulation is a one of many problems, which requires changing of the

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main direction, more precisely consolidation in divine principles.

International organizations along with religious leaders should lay the foundations of biblical education, not confessional that is present in society today.

“Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her. She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.”(Proverbs 4:7-9)[20].

The wisdom of God will always show the best way. Wisdom is the ability to make right decisions. Wisdom is not just a lot of knowledge, it is the ability to correctly use knowledge.

REFERENCES [1] The World Bank, Middle East and North Africa, Accessed 08.04.2018 https://data.worldbank.org/region/middle-eastand-north-africa [2] The Bible, Psalms 127:3. Accessed 10.04.2018 https://www.bible.com/bible/1/PSA.127.kjv [3] United Nations Population Divisions, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Abortion Policies – A Global Review, Accessed 11.04.2018, http://www.un.org/esa/ population/publications/abortion/ [4] Jewish Virtual Library, Latest Population Statistics for Israel, Accesed 08.04.2018,http:// w w w. j e w i s h v i r t u a l l i b r a r y. o rg / l a t e s t population-statistics-for-israel [5] Heinck Guido, The relationship between religion and fertility: Evidence for Austria, Homo Oeconomicus 2012, Vol 29: 73-94 [6] Kinsey Alferd C., Sexual behavoir in the Human Male , Accesed 23.04.2018, https:// ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.2105/ AJPH.93.6.894 [7] American Humanist Association, Humanist Manifesto II, Accesed 25.04.2018, https://americanhumanist.org/what-is-humanism/

manifesto2/ [8] Johnston’s archive, United States abortion rates 1960-2013, Accesed 27.04.2018, http:// www.johnstonsarchive.net/policy/abortion/ graphusabrate.html [9] International Agency for Research on Cancer, IARC Monographs on the evaluation of carcinogenic risks to human, Volume 91, 2007, Accesed 27.04.2018, http://monographs.iarc.fr/ENG/Monographs/ vol91/mono91-6A.pdf [10] The Statistics Portal, Sexual orientation: views on nature vs. nurture in the U.S. 19772016, Accesed 27.04.2018, https://www.statista.com/statistics/226150/ sexual-orientation-nature-vs-nurture-unitedstates-survey/ [11] National Center for Health Statistics, Percentage of births to unmarried woman, selected countries 1980 and 2007, Accesed 29.04.2018, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db18. htm [12] Teece Geof, Learning about religion and learning from religion, University of Birningham, december 2013: 1-2.

[13] The Bible, Deuterenomy 4:9, Accesed 29.04.2018 https://www.bible.com/bible/1/DEU.4.kjv [14] The Bible, Proverbs 6:20-21, Accesed 29.04.2018 https://www.bible.com/bible/1/PRO.6.kjv [15] The Bible, Genesis 1:28, Accesed 29.04.2018 https://www.bible.com/bible/1/GEN.28.kjv [16] The Bible, Exodus 20:13, Accesed 30.04.2018 https://www.bible.com/bible/1/EXO.20.kjv [17] Ackerman S., Discovering the Brain, National Academies Press (US),1992, Accesed 30.04.2018 h t t p s : / / w w w. n c b i . n l m . n i h . g o v / b o o k s / NBK234146/ [18] The Bible, Hebrews 13:4, Accesed 30.04.2018 https://www.bible.com/bible/1/HEB.13.kjv [19] The Bible, 1 Corinthians 7:3-5, Accesed 30.04.2018 https://www.bible.com/bible/1/1CO.7.kjv

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[20]

The Bible, Proverbs 4:7-9, Accesed 01.05.2018 https://www.bible.com/bible/1/PRO.4.kjv

Biography Phd Student Delistoian Dmitri was born in Republic of Moldova at 31.10.1983.

Graduated Ovidius University of Constanta, R o m a n i a with engineer degree (Department of Shipbuilding) at 2008. In present he is a Phd Student at Constanta Maritime University (Department of Engineering Sciences in the Mechanical Field and Environment), Constanta, Romania. Field of study is pipeline construction.

Between 2008 and 2012 it was engineer at steel construction company and from 2012 he is Assistant at Faculty Faculty of Mechanical, Industrial and Maritime Engineering from Ovidius University of Constanta.

Phd. Radoiu Viorel-Bogdan was born in 22.11.1974.

Graduated Ovidius University of Constanta, Romania with engineer degree (Department of Shipbuilding) at 1998 and in 2006 obtained his Phd in the Constanta Maritime University.

His work experience is starting with Assistant position and continuous with Lecturer at Ovidius University of Constanta.

From 2010 till present occupying the

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position of Chief of the Department of Naval, Port and Power Engineering at Ovidius University of Constanta.

He is the author of the following books: • Strength of materials – Virom, 1999.

• Computer-aided graphics – Ovidius Univeristy press,2015.

Member of the project research teams: • Train-Res, “Innovative vocational training concept for promoting renewable energy sources in rural areas in Europe“, Contract de finantare nr LLP-LdV-ToI-2012RO-016/2012-1-RO1-LEO05—21099; • CEEX project; Phd. Mihael Chircor was born in 01.08.1954.

Graduated University Politehnica of Bucharest at 1979 with mechanical engineer degree and in 1997 obtained his Phd in the

same unievrsity.

His work experience is starting with Design Engineer position and continuous with entire stage and reaching the Director position at Autonomous Regime Public and Private Exploitation. In parallel is engaged in teaching from 1990 till present occupying the position of Chief of the Department of Technologies and Mechanical Engineering at Ovidius University of Constanta.

He is the author of the following books: • Operational research – Bren publishing.

• Industrial Robots – Ovidius Univeristy press,1999.

• Elements of kinematics, dynamics and planning of industrial robot trajectories – publishing house of the Romanian Academy, 2001.

He is part of the following affiliations: DAAAM, AMIER, CIER, CNFIS.

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“Be fruitful and increase in number…!”

An Orthodox perspective on overpopulation Fr. Lecturer Stelian Manolache, PhD Faculty of Theology, Ovidius University of Constanța, Romania

ARTICLE INFO

ABSTRACT

Article history: Received 23 April 2018 Received in revised form 2 May Accepted 5 May 2018 Available online 20 May 2018 doi: 10.18638/dialogo.2018.4.2.15

Many voices adhered to the vision of the Anglican pastor Thomas Malthus (1766 – 1834), the author of An essay on the principle of population (1798), trying to draw attention on some presumed risks, more or less apocalyptic, generated by the accelerated growth of the population of Earth. In the vision of Thomas Malthus, the growth of the population is possible to throw the humanity in chaos through the lack of equilibrium between the geometric mean of population growth and the arithmetic mean of the natural resources – the available material resources as food, water air and energy and mineral resources are limited in time. The demographic boom - observed during the 19th century under the dark perspective of a predictable self-destruction through hunger, social chaos, wars and the destruction of the environment manifested acuter in the 20th century, - the humanity was in front of some radical options/decisions, demanding to choose between the control and the limitation of the births, through modern family planning. Our study is related to this choice and to the contemporary relation of the Christian family with the presumed logical reasoning and Malthusian social relevance.

Keywords: overpopulation; family; demographic crisis; fear; ecological crisis;

© 2014 RCDST. All rights reserved.

I. Preliminaries

According to the international statistics, over 7.6 billion people are living on Earth nowadays, while in 2010 the statistics showed a number of 6.9 billion people.

The latest prognosis of the United Nations indicates a population of 9.5 billion in 2050 and 10.8 billion in 2100 [1]. There is continuous growth, although, previously, during the second half of the 21st century,

the population of the world seemed to decrease due to the reduction to 2.1 of the medium number of children per woman in the developing countries [2]. The visible and rapid growth of the population is parallel to a very visible depreciation of the natural resources: 1.5 million ha of forest disappear yearly through deforestation; erosion and desertification compromise almost 5.5 million ha of farmland, affecting the survival of approx. 825 million people

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living nowadays at the limit of the survival.

The least optimistic prognoses appreciate that the oil resources of the world will be enough for only 45 years and the natural gases for 160 years [3], while, according to the International Food Research Policy Institute from Washington, the productivity in agriculture increases with only 1-2% every year, while the price of the rice increased five times in 2005-2008 [4]. Food security and its related problems – resources of farmland and water, pollution and so on – are on the agenda of all governments, especially due to the fact that many simulations show that, in 2050, the demand for food to a global level could increase with 60 – 110%, prognoses that bring in discussion the limited character of the evolutions/ progress anticipated in agriculture and farming [5]. All these matters generate and feed the image of a human kind leading inevitably toward a critical point, when the resources offered by the planet will be insufficient. They generate the fear related to the imminence of a global catastrophe. In fact, the same type of reasoning motivated all the followers of Thomas Maltus. Thus, we present a brief review of their positions before passing to the stage of formulating an Orthodox point of view related to the solution proposed by them – the control and the limitation of births.

II. Highlights and remedies over the Malthusian overpopulation anxiety

Thomas Malthus is the first to put in relation the accelerated growth of the population with the risk of extreme poverty of those lacking the subsistence means, thus, depending on the employers or on the help of the state. The English pastor and economist considered that, until becoming global, the food crisis following the uncontrolled growth of the population would affect the poor people primarily.

This generates his well-known affirmation Session 2. Religion and OverPopulation

related to the inopportunity of the families with many children if the family cannot feed a newly born child. He says that, if the society does not need the work of the poor parent, the newly born has no right to ask for any food and is out of place on earth [6].

In fact, Thomas Malthus creates his vision based on two big categories of reasoning and arguments, starting from: a). The significant disproportion between the growth rate of the population and the growth rate of food production [7]; b). The cyclic evolution of the relation between the growth of the population and the growth of the subsistence resources.

This evolution is in the vision of Malthus a trap/catastrophe, manifested periodically, on several generations and including as stages [8]: 1. The sustainable increasing stage of the population; 2. The unsustainable increasing stage of the population; 3. The stage of return to the equilibrium.

Malthus also wrote that the humankind would run out of food reserves around the half of the 19th century. For the English pastor, there are two objective and untreatable factors in the way of the unlimited growth of the population: (a) the limited character of the food and of other subsistence resources (b) the feedback effect generated by the reduction of the accessibility to the means for the insurance of life, manifested acutely through poverty [9]. Therefore, Malthus convinced that to avoid the periodical poverty of the working class and to create the necessary conditions for minimum wellbeing, it is needed to explain to the working class that having many children decreases the work cost and increases the poverty [10]. If Thomas Malthus avoided – perhaps due to his theological statute – to claim the involvement of the governments in the birth control, Paul Ehrlich, professor at Stanford

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University, did not avoid it. Integrating data from debates from 1950 – 1960 and using the studies of William Vogt and Henry Fairfield Osborn Jr., Paul Ehrlich made public his beliefs on the opportunity to limit the growth of the population beginning with the year 1968, when he published the first edition of his book The Bomb Population, where he estimated that, in 10 or 20 years, hundreds of millions people would die of starvation, in spite of the outreach programs [11]. Ehrlich spoke openly about the decisive political role of the public authorities in the control of the population, using the most relevant proposed solutions – the growth in the efficiency of the contraceptives, the right to abortion, the prenatal choice of the child’s gender and the extension of the sexual education in schools. Affirming the necessary involvement of the USA and of other developed capitalist states in the problem of birth control – we need to bring rapidly the population of the world under control, reducing the growth rate to zero or making it negative – Paul Ehrlich adhered to the vision of the brothers William and Paul Paddockwho, in 1967, considered that, when starvation will affect the third world countries, around the year of 1975, USA will have to do a global triage to identify the overpopulated and inefficiently governed states, which will not be subject to humanitarian aid, because it would be as throwing sand in the ocean; thus, the fate of these nations would be sealed. After 1990, Paul Ehrlich will introduce the well-known concept of optimizing population growth, which obviously means limiting the number of inhabitants of the Earth to a maximum determined by biophysical considerations, the maximum of which about 5.5 billion people existed in 1993 it would have clearly outgrown it. In itself, the operationalization of the idea of demographic optimization should take into account the following elements:

1. the optimal number of inhabitants of the planet lies in a reverse link to the accepted / desirable living standard; in fact, Ehrlich considers the detail, otherwise correct in itself, that an increased quality of life implies an equally increased access to resources; 2. While preserving the social inequalities and the unequal distribution at global level - of wealth and resources, a situation due to the selfishness characteristic of humanity, the optimal should be small enough both in substance and in relation to the maximum possible, the one based on biophysical considerations;

3. the same optimization will have to be significantly limited to the maximum and for reasons of the effective availability of individuals to access education, healthcare or employment; including the authenticity and viability of democratic governance systems, as well as respect for / implementation of human rights in general would be conditioned by the diminution of the numerical value of the demographic optimum - democracy seems to work best when populations are relatively small compared to resource bases; personal freedom tends to be limited in situations of high population density and / or limited resources; 4.

Ultimately, demographic optimization will also be limited by environmental and biodiversity-specific considerations, as it has been shown that they become the predilected victims of the rush by material resources - mankind choosing selfishly for more direct direct benefits from other species;

5. on the other hand, in determining the demographic demography, it will also have to be taken into account that a too drastic limitation of the population will tend to suppress the narrow ethnic and cultural groups - the many cultures of small groups of people - to cohabitate with the Western

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world, bearing the maximum material and cultural values and having all the secrets of long-term survival; it would also ensure that the intellectual, artistic and technological creativity is ensured, all of which require the preservation of areas of maximum academic and scientific concentration compatible only with a particular socio-economic and population infrastructure.

After the First World Optimum Population Congress (London, 1993), Paul Ehrlich concluded that the effective numerical dimension of the population optimum is a matter of social preference, but, beyond this negotiable aspect, the control and the limitation of the demographic growth is very important, thus the community, national and international discussions on such social preferences are essential, because the achievement of a target-level needs steady social policies to influence the fertility rate. As consequence, the political and decisional global consensus is imperative related to the establishment of a maximal population optimum and the establishment and implementation of the family planning measures – societies have to act on the natural growth to reach the desired demographic levels [12].

As a conclusion, to this sequence in our study, to illustrate the magnitude and the diversity of the problem of overpopulation, we mention briefly the conclusion of the article The best way to reduce your carbon footprint is one the government isn’t telling you about, published in “Science” magazine (July 2017). The article shows that the reducing of the CO2 emissions and of the global warming has as important solution the reduction of the children’s number, because they are the new consumers of food, energy, and goods. The limitation of the children’s number for each family, meaning the planning of the birth, is, in the opinion expressed in the article, 25 times more efficient that renouncing to private cars, 40

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times more efficient than the annulment of the transatlantic flights and 120 times more efficient than the replacement of the thermic engines with hybrid engines [13].Due to its significance and actuality, the problem of overpopulation should also be in the attention of theology, through a theology of the family, because the proto-parents Adam and Eve received from the Creator the commandment-blessing of having children:Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it (Gen. 1:28). Thus, the next sequence of our study presents some possible perspectives/options of the Eastern Church on the modern demographic growth.

III. Marriage and giving birth: Orthodox

perspectives

Facing the anti-humanitarian malthesian discourse, the Holy Church can only remark the lack of theological logic, because the birth of children is a divine blessing (Ps. 127:3-4). Each child is gift from God, as Eve says: With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man(Gen. 4:1), highlighting the love of the Creator for humanity, as exclaimed by the Patriarch Jacob: They are the children God has graciously given your servant (Gen33:5). Even if, as St. Paul shows, chastity is a virtue (1 Cor. 7:1), at the same level of Christian virtue is marriage fulfilled with children, consider by St. John the Chrysostom [14].

In this context, the idea of demographic optimum is equivocal and strange to any imaginable form of love, thus characterized as absurd socially and, most of all, theological.

In fact, to fundament the optimization of the population on social, race, intellectual, technical, etc. bases equals with deciding who, for how long and where can live; the deciding factors will have to decide who will have the right to be born and who will not. The man, whose life does not belong to

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him, will have the right to decide on the life of another man. The idea of demographic optimum integrates all the activities destined to plan the modern family. Becoming more efficient, accessible and simple to use, they will limit the natural rise of the population in the areas with population predisposed to have more children – the Third World. a) If modernity hesitates, until now, to discuss openly the problem of demographic optimization, the health of the reproduction is from a long time on the agenda of the World Health Organisation and of the United Nations Population Fund. The right of the woman/couple/family to decide if they want and when they want to have children is considered a fundamental right.

The concepts of health of reproduction, family planning and birth control are part of the contemporary culture [15].

As part of the axiological field of the recent man (H.-R. Patapievici), they are added to modern typical values as the gnoseological and theological relativism, the anthropocentrism and the relativist ethics, all belonging to a world where the Truth of God was eliminated and replaced with a public agenda of the man [16].The health of reproduction and the family planning are part of the modern ethics of a family that, as Marguerita Peeters writes(The Globalization of the Western Cultural Revolution, 2007), puts in opposition (1)the marriage of the same sex people, sometimes their right to adopt children, to the traditional family, (2)the civil partnership to the religious and civil marriage, (3)the acceptation and moral validation of any type of sexual behaviour to the social and legal norm of heterosexuality, (4) the gender communion to the gender difference, and (5)the rights of the children to the authority of the parents [17].This new ethics, the loyal expression of a world with a general relativism and subjectivity, considers as obsolete the values that used to be incontestable and more and more incompatible to the spirituality of

the recent man: family, marriage, having children, and chastity (Gabriela Kuby).

People would perceive them as limitative and constraining, because the axiology of the modernity does not accept any norm in an absolute way [18], and everything is under the sign of the absolute relativity.

The recent man will tend to renounce to the moral and ethical values of the humanity for centuries, considering them obstacles on the path for self-fulfillment and personal creativity [19].Regulated by the divine revelation and as object of the Holy Gospel and Holy Tradition, also in the practice of the Church, marriage and having children are the favourite targets in the process of un-regulation proposed by modernity and postmodernity, aiming to eliminate any type of institutions, especially the religious institutions, considered to be constraining and exterior to the human individuality and to its fundamental freedom [20], because the hubris of modernity depends on its totalitarian instinct related to tradition [21].

Thus, marriage and the birth of children lose their profound theological meaning, which connect them in relation with the sacramental image of the Church (St. John the Chrysostom) or with the sacrament of the divine unity (St. Theophilus of Antioch) [22]. They become more and more human, thus arbitrary and without content, allowing to modernity to substitute them with concepts unacceptable in other times, as the civil partnership – no matter the gender of the partners – and the control and the limitation of births. b) In fact, similar to the society, marriage and the birth of children, are desecrated and transformed by the modernist logic in simple human acts. Liberated from the ecclesial authority and rules [23], their divine dimension is suppressed by the radical anthropocentric logic of the modernity.

Through the divine dimension, God shows that he adopts in sacrament all those respecting the divine laws in marriage and

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children [24]. Generated by a false problem, that of the presumed antagonism between obeying to God and Church, and the human freedom to dispose of the private life – because the European modernity was born in double opposition: the divine rights against the man and the man’s rights against God [25] – the desecration of the binomial relation between marriage and birth erases part of the divine image of man and woman, an image that has its perfect sacrament in the Christian marriage (St. Ephrem the Syrian). In fact, in the teachings of the Saviour Jesus Christ, family based on marriage is part in the creational order [26] and the spouses are working together to build in their family the Christian ideals[27], because The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”(Gen. 2:18). The Saviour also showed that, based on the theandric feature of marriage, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh(Mt. 19:5).

The Christian marriage – Marriage should be honoured by all (Heb. 13:4) – marks the entrance of the man and of the woman in a new spiritual relation [28], with profound anthropological and soteriological valences.

The human part of the man will enter the sacrament of marriage; in marriage, man and woman will be complete and find their original ontological unity, as Dumitru Stăniloae said: the human unity is achieved in the personal and complementary union of man and woman [29].The Church will bless marriage because God sanctifies it and protects it: Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain (Ps. 126:1).

Thus, the Christian wedding will always stay under the sign of grace, giving legitimacy to spouses in front of God and the power to get near Him. The feeling of the divine presence […] is inner norm in the married life [30], as long the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God(1Cor. 11:3).

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The wedding finds several archetypes to represent. Marriage as archetypal image is previous to the couple, because Adam was created after the image of Christ and Eve after the image of the Church [31]. While Christ is the Bridegroom (Mark 2:19-20, Jn. 3:29), the Church is His Bride (Eph. 5:22-24, Apoc. 21:2; 21:9-10). Thus, the abolition of the natural order and meaning of marriage, that of forming a family between a man and a woman united in front of God through love equals the departure of the man from theandric space of the divine order, a fact considered by the Holy Eastern Parents as a negation of the love God has for the man, who was created to be fruitful and become heir of the Kingdom of Heavens [32].In fact, the union between man and woman, achieved through the hand of God, as Origen wrote, fulfils what Paul Evdokimov named the marriage-priesthood, changing ontologically the man who becomes, through the sacrament of marriage, the new being filling with eternity the human time[33].On the other hand, the essential aim of the married woman was, even in Judaism, to become a mother and have many children [34], a perspective assimilated and deepened by the New Testament, which gives it an explicit soteriological dimension: But womenwill be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety (1 Tim. 2:15).

In fact, giving birth and raising children is the natural and immediate result of the sacrament of marriage [35], thus the family is […] the micro-Church [ecclesia micra, according to St. John the Chrysostom] where the two spouses can give birth to a third being [36].Family functions similar to the Church, restoring the communion, because, in marriage, the man and the woman are not parts, but each of them is a whole finding the perfection in the union with God [37].The Church sees the children as a divine blessing for men – Children are a heritage from the LORD,offspring a reward

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from him (Ps. 127:3) and a gift from God (Ps. 112:9). All children and each child are equally a blessing and a gift [38], while the family with children is very blessed – Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table (Ps. 128:3).For a Judeo-Christian man, the idea of limiting deliberately the number of children is incoherent, absurd and related to the corrupted state (Dumitru Stăniloae), because Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them [children]. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their opponents in court(Ps. 127:5); also: Has not the one God made you? You belong to him in body and spirit. And what does the one God seek? Godly offspring!(Malachi 2:15). Each new-born child renews and consolidates the connection between the spouses, man and wife, with God in sanctified and blessed wedding. From this perspective, children […] are reflections of divine love and reflections of God in people [39], fulfilment and purpose for the marital love. Children are the path for unity in live and living together, after the trinitarian model of life, in the limits of the created nature [40].On the other hand, the woman with children fulfils a kenosis act, sacrificing herself for her children, a sacrifice where each mother bows to Christ crucified [41].

It is the answer given by the woman to the Tempter. The vocation of mother is sacrifice and salvation in the same time. For the man, the sacrificial dimension of his paternity will reside mostly in taking care of the children and of the wife (2 Cor. 12:14; Col. 3:21), highpriced work in front of God [42]. From this perspective, we observe that planning and intentionally limiting the number of births is in contradiction with the man as religious being, with his profound vocation of being called to salvation together with the family.

Conclusions Modernity brought the transfer of the

aspirations and of the general human values in the small sphere of the present and of the tangibility. The present, experienced by a self that is more and more egocentric and less willing to look around – to the people and above – to God, monopolised all the interests and the preoccupations of the recent man, thus, it became the mantra of the human existence; the fulfilment of all the egocentric promises of the man is followed nowadays[43]. As result, the spiritual values that cannot be quantified from a material perspective become more superfluous, more irrelevant, because the striking majority of the contemporary people do consider as valuable only what is leading them to success in a context of merciless competition, helping them to be above other people [44]. Implicitly, the significance of marriage and of giving birth to children will be considerably diminished, while their profound theological significance is ignored. There is no wonder that, becoming a simple social convenience, marriage loses its sacramental meaning and divine-human dimension, being pushed inclusively toward the circumvention of its authentic meaning, that of uniting in the love of Christ the man and the woman loving each other. In the same manner, having children is not perceived anymore as a blessing, a divine gift, becoming more and more a reproductive issue, attentively planed and organised. It serves eventually to the preservation of the material goods transmitted along generations. Thus, The Holy Church can only reject these spiritual involutions, uncovering their profoundly desacralizing and estranging character.

It has in the same time the moral duty of working and preaching starting from a theology of the family, for the positivity of the births to all the social levels. Its message, from this theological perspective, is unique: the Holy Sacrament of Marriage and giving birth to children are in indissoluble relation with the human vocation of being called

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to overcome inside its present condition, living in Christ. In this restoring vocation, representing more than the modernity can support, disseminating the entire creation of God in simple human acts and actions, which are not subject to objectivism and to the arbitrary individual choices, the man proves that he is not just a dialogic man, but also the Image of God in history, possible to be perfected inclusively by giving birth to children, which is not a curse for the family and race, but a blessing of the Divinity.

References [1] www.esa.un.org [consulted on 14.04.2018] [2] Gabriele Kuby, Revoluţia sexual globală.

Distrugerea libertăţii în numele libertăţii (The global sexual revolution. The destroyal of freedom in the name of freedom), translated from German by Alexandru Ş. Bologa, Iaşi, Editura Sapientia, 2014, p. 48 [3] www.worldometers.info [14.04.2018] [4] Joel K. Bourne, Jr., Criza globală a alimentelor (The global crisis of food), available onwww.natgeo.ro/dezbateri-globale/omulsi-viata/9039-criza-globala-a-alimentelor [14.04.2018].

[5] www.ecology.md/md/page/agriculturamondiala-a-ajuns-la-momentul-peak-food [14.04.2018] [6] Jean Luc Caradeau, Teoria marelui complot mondial (The theory of the big world conspiracy), translation: Alex. Vlad, Bicureşti, Editura Niculescu, 2017, p. 77; See also Gabriele Kuby, op. cit., p.47. In Romanian: R. Malthus, Eseu asupra principiului populației (Essay on the principle of population), translated by Victor Vasiloiu and Elena Angelescu, București, Editura Științifică, 1992.

[7] Jean Luc Caradeau, op. cit., p. 78 and Gabriela Kuby, op. cit., p. 47.

[8] Jean Luc Caradeau, op. cit., pp. 78 – 79.

Such catastrophe might have affected the population on the Easter Island in the S-E of the Pacific, during the 17th-18th centuries.

This supposition is contested nowadays.

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[9] Jean Luc Caradeau, op. cit., p. 79.

[10] Jean Luc Caradeau, op. cit., p. 80.

[11] Gabriele Kuby, op. cit., p. 48.

[12] Gretchen C. Daily, Anne H. Ehrlich, Paul R. Ehrlich, Optimum Human Population Size, available onhttp://dieoff.org/page99.htm [15.04.2018].

[13] Available onhttp://www.sciencemag.org/ news [15.04.2018].

[14] Ioan-Cristinel Teşu, Sensul familiei în concepţia Sf. Ioan Gură de Aur (The meaning of the family in the conception of Saint John Chrysostom, in ***,Familia creştină azi (Christian family today), Iaşi, EdituraTrinitas, 1995, p. 58.

[15] Gabriele Kuby, op. cit., p. 108.

[16] Jamie McDonald, Corectitudinea politică: deconstrucţie şi literatură (The political correctness: deconstruction and literature), translation and notes by Irina Bazon, in William S. Lind, Andrei Dârlău, Irina Bazon, Corectitudinea politică (Political correctness), Bucureşti, EdituraRost, 2015, p. 55.

[17] Gabriele Kuby, op. cit., pp. 107 – 108.

[18] Gheorghe Petraru, Paradigme conceptual moderniste şi postmoderniste şi impactul lor asupra teologiei şi misiunii Bisericii (Modernist and postmodernist conceptual paradigms and their impact on the theology and the mission of the Church), in Vasile Nechita (coord.), Simpozionul „Modernism, postmodernism şi religie” (Symposium “Modernism, postmodernism and religion), Constanţa, mai 2005, Iaşi, Editura Vasiliana ’98, 2005, p. 59.

[19] Tudor Cosmin Ciocan, Postmodernismul ca revolta împotriva autorităţii revelaţionale (Postmodernism as a revolt against the revelational authority), in Simpozionul „Modernism, postmodernism şi religie” (Symposium “Modernism, postmodernism and religion), p. 302.

[20] Adrian Niculcea, Intelectualul roman între „moartea lui Dumnezeu” şi un creştinism „imaginal”(The Romanian intellectual between “the death of God” and an “imaginary” Christianity), in Simpozionul „Modernism, postmodernism şireligie”(Symposium “Modernism, postmodernism and religion), p.

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268.

H.-R. Patapievici, Omul recent (The recent man), Bucureşti, Editura Humanitas, 2001, p.

143.

[22] Nicolae Chifăr, Taina nunţii după învăţătura SfinţilorPărinţi (The sacrament of marriage in the teachings of the Holy Fathers), in ***,Familia creştină azi(Christian family today), p. 106.

[23] Gheorghe Petraru, art. cit., p. 50.

[24] Sf. Maxim Mărturisitorul, Ambigua, 46, înPSB, vol. 80, p. 160.

[25] Olivier Clement, Creştinătate, secularizare şi Europa (Christianity, secularisation and Europe), in. Ioan I. Icăjr., GermanoMarani (coord.), Gândirea socială a Bisericii.

Fundamente, documente, analize, perspective (The social thinking of the Church: Fundaments, documents, analyses, perspectives), Sibiu, Editura Deisis, 2002, p.

509.

[26] Mihai Vizitiu, Familia în învăţătura Mântuitorului şi a Sfinţilor Apostoli (Family in the teachings of the Saviour and of the Holy Apostles), in ***,Familia creştină azi(Christian family today), p. 28.

[27] Ioan-CristinelTeşu, art. cit., p. 54.

[28] Gheorghe Popa, Familia creştină: O perspectivă teologică şi spirituală (Christian family:A theological and spiritual perspective), in ***, Familia creştină azi(Christian family today), p. 151.

[29] Pr.Prof. dr. Dumitru Stăniloae, Teologia dogmatic ortodoxă (The Orthodox Dogmatic Theology), 2nd edition, vol. III, Bucureşti, EIBMBOR, 1997, pp. 120 – 121.

[30] Ilie Moldovan, Taina nunţii (The sacrament of marriage), in“Ortodoxia” (Orthodoxy), XXX (1979), no. 3 – 4, p. 511.

[31] Paul Evdokimov, Ortodoxia (Orthodoxy), translated from French by PhD Irineu Ioan Popa, Vicar bishop, Bucureşti, EIBMBOR, 1996, p. 319.

[32] Nicolae Chifăr, art. cit., p. 108.

[33] Paul Evdokimov, Taina iubirii (The sacrament of love), translated by Gabriela Moldoveanu, Bucureşti, Editura Christiana, 1999, p. 51.

[34] Petre Semen, Familia şi importanţa ei în [21]

perioada Vechiului Testament (Family and its importance during the time of the Old Testament), in ***,Familia creştină azi (Christian family today), p. 9.

[35] Nicolae, Mitropolitul Banatului, Învăţături ale Bisericii Ortodoxe (Teachings of the Orthodox Church), Timişoara, 1987, p. 244.

[36] Gheorghe Petraru, Familia creştină – perspective misionare şi ecumeniste (Christian family – missionary and ecumenist perspectives), in ***,Familia creştină azi, (Christian family today) p. 80.

[37] Vladimir Losski, Teologia mistică a Bisericii de Răsărit (The mystical theology of the Eastern Church), translation, introductory study and notes by VasileRăducă, Bucureşti, Editura Anastasia, f.a., p. 272.

[38] Nicolae Achimescu, Familia creştină între tradiţie şi modernitate. Consideraţii teologico-sociologice (The Christian family between tradition and modernity.

Theological and sociological considerations), in ***,Familia creştină azi (Christian family today), p. 115.

[38] Nicolae, Mitropolitul Ardealului, Studii de Teologie Morală (Studies of Moral Theology), Sibiu, 1969, p. 357.

[40] Christos Yannaras, Abecedar al credinţei (Primer of faith), translated by Constantin Coman, Bucureşti, Editura Bizantină, 1996, p. 89.

[41] Paul Evdokimov, Taina iubirii, p. 134.

[42] Clement Alexandrinul, Stromata, III, 79, 5, in PSB, vol. 5, p. 221.

[43] Horaţiu Trif, Tradiţie şi eshaton. Scurtă anamneză despre sfârşitul modernităţii (Tradition and Eschaton. Short anamnesis on the end of modernity), in “Verso”, no. 2 – 3 (109 – 110) /2014, p. 8.

[44] Konrad Lorenz, Cele opt păcate capitale ale civilizaţiei (The eighth sins of civilisations), translation from German by Vasile V. Poenaru, Bucureşti, Editura Humanitas, 2017, p. 33.

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Volunteers, Priests and Community Work in Overpopulated New York City (Literary Representations of Pre- and Post- 9/11 NYC) Nicoleta Stanca, Phd.

Ovidius University of Constanta Romania

ARTICLE INFO

Article history: Received 4 May 2018 Received in revised form 14 May 2018 Accepted 15 May 2018 Available online 20 June 2018 doi: 10.18638/dialogo.2018.4.2.16

Keywords: Colum McCann; city; overpopulation; New York; 9/11 fiction; community work; storytelling;

ABSTRACT

Colum McCann’s Let the Great World Spin (2009), considered a New York, IrishAmerican, immigrant, 1970s and post 9/11 novel, starts with Philippe Petit’s walk on a tightrope between the World Trade Center towers in New York in 1974. This historical event is used as a symbol which links space (Park Avenue and the Bronx at the extremes), time (1974 and 2006, the post 9/11 period) and characters’ stories. An overpopulated city in permanent change, New York is constructed in the novel vertically, horizontally as networks. The article will explore the relation between the real and fictional spaces of New York in its three dimensions, or as “thirdspace”, superimposing pre- and post9/11 cartographies. The most relvant dimension of the overcrowded city, the horizontal connection, is achieved through the hard work and dedication of an Irish Jesuite priest (in 1974) and two community volunteers (in 2006), each of them part of dedicated networks. © 2014 RCDST. All rights reserved.

I. INTRODUCTION

I love this hairy city.

It’s wrinkled like a detective story and noisy and getting fat and smudged lids hood the sharp hard black eyes.

Frank O’Hara, “To the Mountains in New York” [1] The motto contains lines from Frank O’Hara, famous for his “6th Avenue consciousness” and “the lunch hour poems”;

he was the hero, the catalyst, the vital centre of the New York School of Poetry which also included Ashbery, Koch, Schuyler, all of them challenging the mechanical geometry of the space and spirit of an overcrowded New York City in the 1950s. To accommodate a large population in need of mobility, postWWII New York City started being shaped according to what Le Corbusier called the “pure geometry” of “mathematical forms”, “logical productions”, “geometrical cells”, “right angles”, and the “straight line, inevitably; for the construction of buildings, sewers and tunnels, highways, pavements”

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[2].

From Manhattan’s urban core of International Style corporate skyscrapers and concrete-slab housing projects to the farthest reaches of the city’s sprawling suburbs, architects and urban planners extended neo-Corbusian straight lines, right angles, and geometrical grids across the surface of post-WWII New York City. [3] From their completion in 1973 to their destruction in 2011, the twin towers of the famous World Trade Center were a focal point of New York City skyline. The 9/11 terrorist attacks caused the death of 2.794 people and made a breach in the popular skyline [4].

Thus, artists denounced the order of the city of New York as paradoxically triggering chaos and they produced fictional urban spaces beneath the surface, along the interstice of a homogeneous city [5]. For instance, Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” denounces the city’s “Robot apartments”, “sphinx[es] of cement and aluminium”, bash[ing] open the skulls” of the city dwellers, eating up “their brains and imagination.” Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s A Coney Island of the Mind also criticizes this urbanization that produces “freeways fifty lanes wide/ on a concrete continent/ spaced with bland billboards/ illustrating imbecile illusions of happiness.” In Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison shows an individual who escapes the psycho-social violence of the segregated city by being “invisible” and going in a subterranean jazz cave, a kind of border area of Harlem. Equally, O’Hara’s “lunch hour” walk poems map an erratic topography among “hum-coloured cabs”, “languorously agitating” black people and “blond chorus girls” in Times Square [6].

[These works] explore aberrant spatiotemporal dimensions, heterogeneous urban topographies, and deviant urban paradigms, but they explicitly associate these anomalous urban spaces with some

kind of alternative, counter-hegemonic citywithin-the-city or some marginalized urban space that is dominated, opposed, stalked, haunted, or repressed by the corporate city that surrounds it. [7] Therefore, according to Bennett, the post WWII culture (through the Beat generation, the New York School of Poetry and the Black Movement), represented a political and imaginative defense against the city’s urban homogenous extension.

The relationship between the space and the culture produced in it in this context gave birth to a certain type of discourse: the “architextural” interrelationship between the urban space and the textual structure of literature [8]. Writers aestheticized New York seeing the material city as an aesthetic and semiotic construct.

New York after WWII also inscribed the big transformations within the regional, national and international structures of the capitalist political economy. The cultural avant-garde used these artistic representations of the city as tropes for their cultural, political and philosophical concerns. They also explored the dynamic and chaotic urban spaces as a perfect model for their aesthetic ideals.

Many members of the avant-garde crossed over into multiple artistic media – O’Hara with “literary snapshots of New York”, Pollock with the “limitless possibilities of this most modern of cities”, the musician John Cage with the “chromatic dissonance” of the modern urban environment and the choreographer Merce Cunnigham with works that “reverberated with the sights sounds, motion, and energy of the metropolis” [9].

A literary counterpart of these hybrid interart aesthetic projects is McCann’s dual representation in his novel, Let the Great World Spin, of New York City as both history and imagination. The ultimate goal, in the contemporary Irish-American novelist’s book may be similar to that of the post-WWII

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New York avant-garde artists: a further exploration of the aesthetic experiments doubled by a return to the concrete, existential experiences of the crawling city which offers an opportunity for storytelling. Ultimately, his novel is a story about a fascinating, grieving, but nonetheless hopeful, city, in which “redemption” comes through the exemples of an Irish missionary priest and two young people involved in volunteer work in various communities – this is what McCann considers worth doing, i.e. telling their stories: I believe in the democracy of storytelling. [...] I love the fact that our stories can cross all sorts of borders and boundaries. I feel humbled by the notion that I’m even a small part of the literary experience. I grew up in a house, in a city, in a country [Ireland] shaped by books. I don’t know of a greater privilege from being allowed to tell a story, or to listen to a story. They’re the only things we have that can trump life itself. [10] II. Fictional stories against the real background of Philip Petit’s wirewalk

In the context mentioned in the introductory part of the article, it is interesting to look at the manner in which Colum McCann’s novel writes space and produces this hybrid experience of exploring real and fictional New York in 1974 and 2006. Philip Petit’s wire-walk between the towers of the World Trade Center could be place alongside artistic gestures of defiance and creativity; the walk, a real event in 1974, about which Petit himself spoke in To Reach Clouds and on which the Man on Wire documentary is based, inaugurated a history for the towers and inspired McCann’s novel, becoming its leitmotif. McCann confesses that though he had taken liberties with Petit’s walk, he also tried to remain faithful to the “texture of the moment and its surroundings” [11]. The day of his walk was pivotal in the lives of all

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the other characters in the novel as well as hundreds of New Yorkers, real and fictional: “Elevator operators. Doctors. Cleaners.

Prep chefs. Diamond merchants. Fish sellers.

Sad-jeaned whores ... Stenographers.

Traders. Deliveryboys. Sandwichboard men.

Cardsharks. Con Ed. Ma Bell. Wall Street” [12].

The novel comprises a series of sections, called books, containing events from one single day in the lives of several New Yorkers, aganist the backgound of the jammed city, which can be sensed at all point. In Book 1, the streets around the World Trade Center, early in the morning of August 7, 1974: “On Church Street. Liberty.

Cortlandt. West Street. Fulton. Vesey.”

[13] acquire a documentary specificity through the viewpoint of Ciaran Corrigan, an Irishman from Sandymount, near Dublin, upon his arrival in New York City, on the day of Petit’s tightropewalk between the World Trade Center towers, to find his brother, John Corrigan, an Irish Jesuit monk who has lived in the Bronx for a while working in a nursing home and looking after the local prostitutes.

The point of view shifts to another character, Claire Soderberg, a Southerner, who lives on Park Avenue at 76th St. and is married to Solomon, an influential Jewish judge. They have lost their son in Vietnam, the same as Gloria, a black woman who lives in the South Bronx, in the same building as Corrigan; the two women will be finally drawn together by the shared plight. Lara is also mentioned in the context of an accident on FDR Drive on the day of the wire-walk, Corrigan and Jazzlyn, a young black prostitute from the Bronx being killed in the accident, Corrigan after having been taken to the Metropolitan Hospital on 98 St. and First Avenue. Lara feels guilty after the accident and checks what happened to the victims.

In Book 2, Fernando is on the subway

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from the Bronx down through Central Station toward Wall Street taking photos.

He surfs the thin metal platform as the train jags out of Grand Central. At times he gets dizzy anticipating the next corner. That speed. That wild noise in his ears. [...] it’s the underground tags he’s grown to love the most. The ones you find in the darkness.

Way in the sides of the tunnels. The surprise of them. The deeper, the better. [14] Another location referred to is Palo Alto, California, a computer lab from where some young soldiers, like Claire and Solomon’s dead son, are making mobile phone calls to public phone boots in Manhattan, trying to find people near the World Trade Center to describe what was going on with the wirewalker, which is easy as there are legions in the street waching the daring act.

Tillie, the black prostitute whose daughter was killed in the car accident, is in prison in Connecticut, ready to commit suicide, missing her granddaughters, Jazzlyn’s children, and she relives the best places in New York she has worked in: Lexington, Waldorf Astoria, Park Avenue up to the South Bronx eventually. A photo of Petit’s walk is inserted in the novel, attributed to Fernando, but actually belonging to Vic de Luca for RexImages, on august 7, 1974. We witness the wire-walker’s steps from the preparations and first walk in Washington Square Park to the walk between the towers, after which he is arrested.

Book 3 shows judge Solomon Soderberg, who hears Tillie and Jazzlyn’s case first and then Petit’s; Adelita, a nurse from Guatemala, whom Corrigan has fallen in love with and Gloria, who also lost her sons in Vietnam, taking Jazzlyn’s daughters (Janice and Jaslyn) when they were being taken away by the authorities after their mother dies in the accident and their grandmother was arrested. The lives of all these characters are intertwined in New York City on the same day August 7, 1974, the day of the Petit’s real

wirewalk.

Book 4 resumes the story thirty-two years later (in 2006), when Jaslyn returns to New York to see Claire Soderberg, Gloria’s friend, who is on her deathbed. Jaslyn is working for a small foundation in Little Rock, assisting people after Rita and Katrina hurricanes and on the plane she meets a doctor who runs a clinic for war veterans in New Orleans. Jaslyn had found Petit’s photo in a garage sale in San Francisco in 2002 and she made the connection with between the wire-walker’s daring venture and her mother’s death on the same day. Jaslyn has also visited her sister, Janice, in Ireland, where the latter has been coordinating US military flights on Shannon Airport after the attacks in Afghanistan in 2011. Janice has seen Ciaran Corrigan and Lara, who are married and live in Dublin.

The novel ends with Jaslyn beside Claire’s bed musing on loss and the passage of time: “The world spins. We stumble on.

It is enough [...]. The world spinning” [15], which brings us to the title of the novel.

The title comes from Alfred Tennyson’s poem “Locksley Hall”, the lines reading as follows: “Forward, forward let us range/ Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change” [16]. According to McCann, Tennyson himself was inspired by the Arabic “Suspended Poems” dating sixth century, focused on the question: “Is there any hope that this desolation can bring me solace?” McCann’s answer is that “literature can remind us that not all life is already written down: there are still so many stories to be told” [17]. The characters in his story move in place (Ireland, Guatemala, California, New York) and time (1974 – 2006) and their movement also points to the unavoidable change in their personal destinies as well as in the fate of the city which united their stories and those of numerous others which form the backgound of the heavily populated place.

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III. New York City rewritten as a

“thirdspace”

The space in the novel could be discussed resorting to Soja’s “thirdspace” concept as “a meeting ground, a site of hybridity”, “a mixture between the real and the imagined” [18]. If Petit made his preparations and performed his daring act in New York’s firstspace (“practices of urban life, mappable configurations of urban life”), the symbolical meaning of his gesture may be placed in New York’s secondspace (mental map or urban utopia, the urban imaginary), whereas the thirdspace, as “real-and-imagined, actual-and-virtual, locus of structured individual and collective experience” [19] allows the formation of all the points of intersection between real 1974 and 2006 New York City and the characters’ lives.

Equally, in a chapter on writers and walkers through London, Diane Weston refers to city writing built on the tension between discovering the city and creating the city, between walking and writing about it and mixing it with other sources about that city: The writer [of London] ‘invents’ the city, its locations, its memories and histories, its experiences and events. He or she finds them, uncovers their traces and duplicates, reiterates them in the imaginative invention of the particular singularity to which the given narrative attests. This is writing the city as invention. But in that sense of discovery, or finding what is already there, rather than creating from nothing, the other semantic horizon of the phrase makes itself known. [20] McCann found Petit’s real story and using the generous canvas of New York City, he started spinning other stories and created the brimming thirdspace proposed by his novel, Let the Great World Spin.

Besides the trialectics of space, Soja

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makes reference to the way in which the urban agglomeration interacts with the mind of the city dweller, a process described through the concept of synekism, “the stimulus of urban agglomeration” [21]. Writers and theoreticians have used similar images to describe the life of the city: Simmel in “The Metropolis and Mental Life” speaks of “the intensification of nervous stimulation” as the basis for metropolitan individuality; Baudelaire in “The Painter of Modern Life”, Poe in “The Man of the Crowd” and W. Benjamin picture the man in the crowd as a reservoir of electric energy [22]. The bombardment of protean phenomena forms the background of the lives of the Corrigan brothers, the two black prostitutes – mother and daughter, Adelita – the nurse from Guatemala, the two artists – Lara and her husband – who are trying to stay away from alcohol and drugs, judge Soderberg, his wife Claire, the group of mothers mourning the death of their sons in Vietnam, Fernando – the amateur photographer, in 1974, and Jazzlyn’s daughters and the characters they connect to in 2006.

The space becomes a product of interrelations, a dimension of coexistence, being in a permanent state of becoming.

Judge Soderberg states at one point that the past disappears in New York City and the wire-walker could be considered a monument of this city with no regard for the past.

[This] was one of the things that made Judge Soderberg think that the tightrope walker was such a stroke of genius. A monument in himself. He had made himself into a statue, but a perfect New York one, a temporary one, up in the air, high above the city. A statue that had no regard for the past. [23] McCann himself claimed he wanted it [Let the Great World Spin] to be a Whitmanesque song of the city, with

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everything in there – high and low, rich and poor, black, white, and Hispanic. Hungry, exhausted, filthy, vivacious, everything this lovely city is. I wanted to catch some of that music and slap it down on the page so that even those who have never been to New York can be temporarily transported there.

[24] IV. Creativity challenging the vertical

dimension of the city

The narrative appears to first construct the city vertically, based on the choronotopes of the skyscraper and the subway [25]. “Wonder City” and “urban hell” are expressive of an opposition between “upward and downward, aspiration and confinement, freedom and compulsion, and ultimately, life and death” [26]. The twin towers are “forward-looking”; they represent “progress, beauty, capitalism” [27], according to judge Soderberg. In contrast, the subway bears the qualities attributed to the mythic underground: “hidden knowledge, atavism, danger, death” [29].

In the novel, New York City appears as a literal combination of ups and downs, a city of heights and depths. For instance, the elevator in Claire’s apartment building takes her to the penthouse on the top floor on the Upper East Side: Claire had told them, at the first meeting that she lived on the East Side, that was all, but they must have known, even though she wore long pants and sneakers, no jewelry at all, must have intuited anyway, that it was the Upper East Side, and then Janet, the blonde leaned forward and piped up: Oh, we didn’t know you lived up there.

Up there. As if it were somewhere to climb. As if they would have to ascend to it.

Ropes and helmets and carabiners. [30] The wire-walker is shown 110 floors above the teeming commuters down in

the streets. Conversely, Fernando rides the subway trains to take photos of the graffiti in the tunnels. The skyscraper and the subway are connected as photographed together allegedly by Fernando as he steps off the subway at Wall Street, attracted by Petit’s walk; actually, the real picture belongs to Vic De Luca.

Philippe Petit’s walk on a tightrope (August 1974) between the two towers of the World Trade Center could be seen as an oscillation between creativity and destruction. Jody Auliffe is of the opinion that “Terrorism, in its desire to ‘undo’ systems of order, shares a common drive with transgressive art” [31]. Thus, the wire-walk and graffiti signify both creation and destruction – impulsed felt by the anonymous citizen in a crammed city. In the case of Petit, he might be a terrorist, a political activist or he might commit suicide. He is described as “some sort of cat burglar, that he had taken hostages, he was an Arab, a Jew, a Cypriot, an IRA man ... or that he was a protestor and he was going to hang a slogan [...]” [32]. The walk in the air symbolically stops time in New York City and draws everybody’s attention to the World Trade Center, just like the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Such extreme acts defined New York City best, as judge Soderberg muses: “New York had a way of doing that.

Every now and then the city shook its soul out. It assailed you with an image, or a day, or a crime, or a terror, or a beauty so difficult to wrap your mind around that you had to shake your head in disbelief” [33].

The section dedicated to Fernando Junque Mercano, a young Hispanic barber, who is also an aspiring photographer riding the subways to take pictures of the graffiti on the tunnel walls, shows the taggers involved in a “Guerilla work” [34]: “Used to be, he dug the bombings, riding in a swallowed-up train, where he was just another color himself, a paint spot in a

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hundred of paint spots. [...] Not jus anyone could bomb a whole train. You had to be in the heart of things” [35]. There might be speculations that the letters and numbers in the graffiti represent a coded reference to an upcoming terrorist attack, with the question of graffiti as art or vandalism. At least, in the novel, Fernando’s fascination and Lara’s admiration are contradicted by Claire’s impression on the subway to the Bronx that graffiti is contributing further to the commuters’ sense of living in a chockfull menacing and uncontrollable city [36].

Perceived vertically, New York City offers the viewer the two perspectives, discussed

by Michel de Certeau in The Practice of Everyday Living, with the conclusion that spatial stories can undermine force-fields of power. There are two angles of his “walking in the city”. First, the voyeur from the observation deck of the world Trade Center, the tallest skyscrapers at the time, has a view of the whole Manhattan and part of New Jersey across the Hudson River; the looker is like “Icarus above the waters”.

The perspective is “the analogue of the facsimile produced ... by the space planner urbanist, city planner or cartographer” [37]. The second viewpoint is that of the street-level pedestrian: “they are walkers, Wandersmänner, whose bodies follow the thicks and thins of an urban ‘text’ they write without being able to read it” [38].

These elbow-to-elbow pedestrians are the real authors of the city; the cartographer may establish a well ordered grid but the pedestrian will find shortcuts and unmarked passages, becoming a “social delinquent” [39]. Thus, John Corrigan, Tillie and Jazzlyn, and Gloria in the Bronx rewrite the New York City, not Claire and judge Soderberg who are forced to reconsider their Park Avenue opinions. And their rewritings of the city are united in the wirewalker’s viewpoint: The shouting, the sirens, the dull sounds of the city. He let them become a white hum.

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He went for his last silence and he found it: just stood there, in the precise middle of the wire, one hundred feet from each tower, eyes closed, body still, wire gone. He took the air of the city into his lungs. [40] V. The horizontal dimension of the city

as symbolical of networks of humanity

According to Hones, the narratives in the novel could be read as a “multilayered quilt”, with the city and the numerous stories connected. There are four approaches to networks as: infrastructure, social networks, models of organizations and the actornetwork theory articulating humans and non-humans [41]. The networks in the novel are the religious order Corrigan belongs to, the mail service to which a victim of a hurricane belonged and the group of the grieving mothers of the Vietnam victims.

John Corrigan is a Jesuite: he is powerful and breaks rules helping the prostitutes in the Bronx but he is also part of a structural community, having served in Ireland, Belgium, Italy and finally in the US, in a nursing home. Secondly, Jaslyn helps people in Little Rock after Hurricane Katrina; she finds a woman in a hotel room not receiving her pension; her son had been a mailman and died in the storm. The mailman and the mail service represent connectedness in people’s lives. Newspaper personal ads and the postal service have enabled the coffee morning group where Gloria and Claire meet for the first time and then, using the city transportation system, the mothers – Claire from Park Avenue, Gloria from the Bronx, Marcia from Staten Island, and Janet and Jacqueline from the Lower East Side meet in each other’s homes.

A metaphor of the horizontal connection of the characters’ destinies and places in the city is a keyring, a cheap glass thing belonging to Jazzlyn with two pictures of her daughters; she lost it when she was

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arrested and it was picked up by Corrigan from the gutter, then lost by Corrigan in the car crash and found by Lara and returned to Ciaran, who gives it to Tillie, Jazzlyn’s mother. The keyring symbolizes the web of relations connecting the characters.

The photo presumably found by Jaslyn in a San Francisco sale in 2002 of Petit’s “flight” between the Towers also connects the real event in 1974 – Petit’s walk, the fictional stories of all these characters and the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers. This is the description of the photo and the young woman’s reflections on it: A man in the air while a plane disappears, it seems, into the edge of the building.

One small scrap of history meeting a larger one. As if the walking man were somehow anticipating what would come later. The intrusion of time and history. The collision point of stories. We wait for the explosion but it never occurs. The plane passes, the tightrope walker gets to the end of the wire.

Things don’t fall apart. [42] Conclusion In an interview, quoted in Moynihan [43], McCann refers to the two human towers in the novel, Corrie and Jazzlyn, who fell, like the Twin Towers, and the attempt to build them back, which shows continuity. Jazzlyn relied on Corrigan, the Jesuit Irish priest, who was taking care of the prostitutes in the Bronx and the old people in the nursing home. Jazzlyn’s daughter, Jaslyn is involved in the support of hurricane Katrina victims and on the plane to New York City she meets Pino, a doctor, working for Medicins sans Frontiers and running a clinic for war veterans.

All in all, Corrie and Jazzlyn are resurrected through Jaslyn and Pino, and the stories about and around the Twin Towers form that “luminous emptiness” [44] that Seamus Heaney speaks about

when you cut down a tree (or suffer a loss) and then replace it in your imagination, reshaping it fundamentally that is acquires a brand new life of its own, detached from its earthly heaviness, replacing the “heavenly place” created by those that cared with a “placeless heaven” [45] established by their successors.

Let the Great World Spin enjoyed immediate success after its publication (2009): Deauville Festival Literary Prize, the inaugural Medici Book Club prize, Amazon.

Com’s “Book of the Year”, 2010, the 2010 Book of the Year by independent book sellers and Grinzane Award, Italy, to mention only a few. As a co-founder of Narrative 4, an NGO project, McCann is helping in bringing youngsters together to share their stories: What story-telling does is it increases the lungs of the world. After the exchanges, these young people go back into their communities and begin to alter their worlds from the ground up. We’re looking to develop a generation of truly empathetic leaders. [46] Thus, it must have been the writer’s power of writing Soja’s thirdspace through telling the stories of these New York human towers – the Jesuite priest and the community volunteers - to replace the shattered glass ones that gained the novel its popularity and successfully inscribed it among the books about the thronged New York City.

References [1] Bennett, Robert. Deconstructing Post WWII NYC. New York and London: Routledge, 2011. 3.

[2] Bennett 4.

[3] Bennett 6.

[4] Howard, M.J. New York. The Growth of a City.

New York: Chartwell, 2011. 144.

[5] Bennett 7.

[6] Bennett 7-9.

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[7] Bennett 9.

[8] Bennett 15.

[9] Wallock qtd. in Bennett 21.

[10] http://colummccann.com/about-colum/.

[11] McCann, Colum. Let the Great World Spin.

New York: Random House, 2009. author’s note.

[12] McCann 4.

[13] McCann 3.

[14] McCann 167-8.

[15] McCann 349.

[16] http://novselect.ebscohost.com.

[17] McCann author’s note.

[18] Soja, Edward. Postmetropolis. Critical Studies of Cities and Regions. Malden, MA and Oxford: Blackwell, 2000. 11.

[19] Soja 11.

[20] Wolfreys qtd. in Weston, Daniel.

Contemporary Literary Landscapes. The Poetics of Experience. Surrey and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2016. 80.

[21] Soja 15.

[22] in Tally, Jr., Robert T. Spatiality. London and New York: Routledge, 2013. 96.

[23] McCann 248.

[24] in Hones, Sheila. Literary Geographies: Narrative Space in Let the Great World Spin.

New York: Palgrave, McMillan, 2014.

[25] Moynihan, Sinead. “’Upground and belowground topographies:’ The Chronotopes of Skyscraper and subway in Colum McCann’s New York Novels before and after 9/11.” Studies in American Fiction Vol. 39, Issue 2, Fall 2012. 273.

[26] Brooks qtd. in Moynihan 278.

[27] McCann 248.

[28] in Bennett 4.

[29] Brooks qtd. in Moynihan 279.

[30] McCann 77.

[31] in Moynihan 282.

[32] McCann 5.

[33] McCann 247.

[34] McCann 170.

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[35] McCann 168.

[36] Moynihan 284.

[37] in Tally 128-9.

[38] in Tally 129.

[39] in Tally 130.

[40] McCann 241.

[41] Hones 94.

[42] McCann 325.

[43] in Moynihan 286.

[44] Heaney, Seamus. Finders Keepers. Selected Prose 1971-2001. London: Faber and Faber, 2002.112.

[45] Heaney 112.

[46] http://colummccann.com/about-colum/.

BIOGRAPHY Nicoleta Stanca is Associate Professor at Ovidius University Constanta. She has published three book-length studies Mapping Ireland (Essays on Space and Place in Contemporary Irish Poetry), (2014), The Harp and the Pen (Tradition and Novelty in Modern Irish Writing) (2013), Duality of Vision in Seamus Heaney’s Writings (2009), articles in academic journals and book chapters, especially on Irish Studies, Irish-American literature and the connection between literature and religion. She has been a coeditor of conference volumes, the most recent being: National and Transnational Challenges to the American Imaginary (2018). She is Vice-President of the Romanian Association for American Studies, alumna of the Multinational Institute of American Studies, New York University (NYU), and a member of the Romanian Society for English and American Studies and of the Ireland-Romania Network.

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DIALOGO JOURNAL eISSN: 2393-1744, cdISSN: 2392-9928, printISSN: 2457-9297

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Proceedings of the Conference on the Dialogue between Science and Theology Volume 4 Issue 2 Overpopulation and Religion’s Involvement. Dialogo conf 2018 ORI May 19-26. 2018

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