I have 3 kids. Some people here (in Austria) laugh at me for having "that many" children, because I'm either:
- stupid,
- too dumb to use contraception or
- lazy and want to live on welfare.
OTOH, according to statistics like posted before - and by personal experience, too - the population growth in Austria is close to zero, it would even become negative if it weren't for immigrants (you know, those bad, bad, lazy mass-kid-producers).
Of course, almost all people in my country moan about over-aging and the consequences for our pension scheme. Still they moan about having many kids.
You know what? People talk much. They are all oh so clever. Especially if they analyze the life of other peoples and what they should do and what not. Even more so, if they do not have the slightest clue about what it means to have children, or what it means to be not able to have children, for that matter.
But this is human nature. Nobody can really change that, just suppress it for a limited time. And in my opinion, this is the reason why we - as in "the whole mankind" - were, are, and will be subject to simple control-loop rules. One of them is: add energy to a closed ecosystem, and you will see growth. Remove that energy, and you will see decline.
The sad part is, that the later means shrinking world population - in one way or the other - if it is not possible to sustain our current global energy consumption. It looks like this is the case, and I really fear that it won't be a controlled shrinking, especially if I look at some of the radical opinions here.
IMHO, humility would help some to get a better view. So, if you think about mankind's faith and the way to go, remember:
- your opinion is not necessarily the universal truth
- you talk about people, not machines
- sweeping statements have a high probability of being wrong (and no, this is no sweeping statement )
my :2cents: