God Arises
The Challenge of The Qur’an
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sustenance available, ushering in an age of famine
in which countless people would starve to death.
Malthus’s book made a powerful impression on
human thought, winning substantial support
among writers and thinkers, and leading to the
launching of birth-control and family-planning
schemes. Recently, however, researchers have come
to the conclusion that Malthus was quite wrong in
his calculations. Gwynne Dyer has summarised this
research in an article which appeared in
The
Hindustan Times
(New Delhi) on December 28, 1984.
The provocative headline read: ‘Malthus: The False
Prophet.’ In it he wrote:
It is the 150th anniversary of Malthus’ death,
and his grim predictions have not yet come
true. The world’s population has doubled and
redoubled in a geometrical progression as he
foresaw, only slightly checked by wars and
other catastrophes, and now stands at about
eight times the total when he wrote. But food
production has more than kept pace, and the
present generation of humanity, is on average
the best fed in history.
