New data that shows the world's population passed 8 billion people in November should be celebrated by the Christian community as a fulfillment of a biblical mandate, says apologist Ken Ham.

The data also challenges the evolutionary worldview, he adds.

The report from the United Nations estimates that the world's population passed 8 billion people on Nov. 15 thanks to a "gradual increase in human lifespan" and "high and persistent levels of fertility in some countries," according to text from the report.

"While it took the global population 12 years to grow from 7 to 8 billion, it will take approximately 15 years - until 2037 - for it to reach 9 billion, a sign that the overall growth rate of the global population is slowing," the report says.

Ken Ham, the CEO and founder of Answers in Genesis, said the 8 billion figure represents mankind's fulfillment of God's commandment to be "fruitful and multiply."

"Earth didn't give rise to life - God created life. And he formed the earth to be inhabited (Isaiah 45:18) by that life," Ham wrote on his blog. "And the crowning jewel of his creation is mankind, Adam and Eve. Yes, all of God's creation is beautiful (though now it groans from sin - Genesis 3; Romans 8:22), and he cares for it - but the crown, the most beautiful jewel, is mankind that bears his image (Genesis 1:27)! So, we shouldn't bemoan what 8 billion people might do to the planet - we should celebrate that there are 8 billion image-bearers of God living on this wonderful planet he made for us!"

The data in the United Nations report, Ham asserted, also conflicts with the evolutionary worldview.

"Consider that evolutionists believe modern man has existed for over 200,000 years. And yet, as the [news] article I linked above states, we didn't hit even a billion people until about 200 years ago," Ham wrote. "So, for tens and tens of thousands of years, humanity's size somehow just didn't grow? Did it stay ridiculously small for an almost incomprehensible amount of time before suddenly exploding in our modern era? That doesn't make any sense, even with our medical advances!

"In this [evolutionary] view, if we use conservative numbers, there should be a whopping 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 people on the planet (more atoms than there are in the universe!) - and that's only going back 50,000 years in supposed human history! Go back to 200,000 years, and the problem just gets worse!"

If the Earth's population is only a few thousand years ago - having reset after the flood - then "even using a conservative estimate for population growth, 8 billion is a very reasonable number for us to be reaching in 2022," Ham wrote.

"As always, the observational evidence confirms God's Word, not evolutionary imaginings," Ham concluded.

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