The Big Answer

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Only 50 percent of couples in the world use birth control, and worldwide, women have an average of four children each. If this trend continues the world population will grow from 5.3 billion in 1991 to 14 billion at the end of the next century. But if affordable family-planning services and education reach 75 percent of couples in the world, the population will stabilize at 9 billion by 2050. The "more developed" countries are already on the path to population stabilization. But these include only 18 percent of the world's population. Another 29 percent of the world’s population are headed in the right direction.

Only 50 percent of couples in the world use birth control (you know, people, just because rubbers are shaped like rockets, that doesn't mean that birth control is rocket science!)

But the remaining 53 percent need family-planning assistance badly. Or they will fight wars with each other, using dog-eat-dog mentality. Overpopulation causes crowding which in turn causes aggression—it’s a well-known scientific fact. Again, we have to ask why they're not choosing to use dog-act-smarter mentality rather than dog-eat-dog mentality. Just because their Church or Temple or Mosque is pushing beliefs about be fruitful and multiply and is frowning on birth control, that doesn’t mean people have to act like lemmings or sheep and just mindlessly follow.

It's up to humans to think for themselves, and not act like sheep and just mindlessly follow

It is up to humans to think for themselves, not act like puppets run by puppeteers, and if the stuff one hears is going to cause one to flush ones hopes and future down the crapper, one can politely decline the advice. Additionally, just because there are customs and traditions that belittle the family that doesn’t breed like rats, that doesn’t mean one has to blindly follow them. Doing something without the slightest bit of thinking or the slightest bit of planning is to act irresponsibly, stupidly, and foolishly.

A monkey mostly is stuck with following the troop, but people are blessed with the ability to think for themselves

The difference between humans and monkeys is that we are self-aware, we can reflect on actions, plan wisely, be proactive, and make good choices. A monkey mostly is stuck with following the troop, just like a sheep is stuck with following the herd. They are not self-aware. They don’t know any better. We do. Well—at least many of us do. Yet, others tend to act like sheep, so there is overpopulation-caused violence, killing, suffering, and wars.

An old joke goes: Patient says doctor doctor it hurts when I go like this (moves arm). Doctor says so don’t go like this (moves arm). Similarly, if the way people conduct their lives continuously leads to violence, killing, suffering, and wars, wouldn’t it be wise for them to try something else? Just saying . . . . After all: Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result each time. (So, is a hamster running in a hamster wheel actually expecting to get somewhere, or just getting some exercise? The scientists say that wheel-running, like play or the endorphin or endocannibinoid release associated with the 'runner's high', is self-rewarding. But people mindlessly following ideas that cause themselves and others to suffer needlessly is masochistic, foolish, and self-defeating. If some book told them to strangle every second infant they birthed, would they say enough is enough and quit acting like mindless sheep? Birth control is simply a way to avoid acting stupidly. Duh!!!!!)

Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result each time

An example of a decent win-win alternative to the inoperable lifestyles of those who behave like sheep: Microcommunities. They will contain no mindless sheep, and they will produce no mindless sheep. Quite the opposite. They will produce conscious, autonomous, self-actualized humans that live in ways to make families, neighborhoods, communities, and the world work better. MUCH better. See for yourself: The Forest Through The Trees.

World population in the middle of 2013 is estimated to number 7,084,000,000 people by the United States Census Bureau. The growth rate peaked at 2.2% in 1963, and had declined to 1.1% by 2011. Total annual births were highest in the late 1980s at about 138 million, and are now expected to remain essentially constant at their 2011 level of 134 million, while deaths number 56 million per year, and are expected to increase to 80 million per year by 2040.

Analysts have questioned the sustainability of further world population growth, citing the growing pressures on the environment, global food supplies, and energy resources

Current projections show a continued increase in population in the near future (but a steady decline in the population growth rate), with the global population expected to reach between 7.5 and 10.5 billion by 2050. Various longer-term estimates predict further growth, stagnation, or even overall decline in the global population by 2150. Some analysts have questioned the sustainability of further world population growth, citing the growing pressures on the environment, global food supplies, and energy resources. Academy Award–winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth (2006), from former vice president Al Gore, is a video containing this message—well-backed by scientific data. (Source for population data: United States Census Bureau and World population.)

The Pope needs to rethink the idea that covering the earth with a layer of squirming humanity twenty feet deep will demonstrate the 'glory of God' (rather than the stupidity of humans)!