You don’t have to be a mystical, supernatural prophet to see the future. If is possible to simply read the signs of the times.
While most of the future remains unpredictable, it is possible to see where things are going and make some fairly accurate predictions.
One of these concerns the human population. Every indication is that the human population will soon reach a crisis called “The Demographic Winter”. Basically, when the birth rate of a population falls to a critical stage it is no longer able to replenish itself. Put simply, there are not enough breeding couples to replace the number of people dying.
While some folks continue to prognosticate pessimistically about over population, in fact the opposite problem is facing humanity. This is just one website discussing the problem.
What’s causing the problem? The causes are complex and numerous. Here’s some:
- Fewer people getting married
- Women choosing to delay child bearing
- Falling sperm count in men
- Couples choosing affluence over large families
- The “dream” of happiness being a big house, double income and 2.5 children
- Artificial Contraceptives
- Abortion
What will be the consequences of our choices? The demographic winter will mean:
- More old people
- Strain on health care services
- Euthanasia
- Labor shortage
- Higher wages making everything more expensive
- Immigrants not a problem. We will compete for immigrants
What will be the impact on the Catholic Church?
- parish schools will be replaced by parish old people’s homes
- shortage of young priests and religious
- more priests imported from developing world
- cultural and ethnic shift in American Catholic Church
- Continued growth and power of Church in Africa
- Increased conservatism in the Church (old people are more conservative)
It does not take an expert philosopher to see that we will soon be experiencing the consequences of our choices. We have chosen prosperity, pleasure and power, and we will reap poverty, pain and impotence.
It may be that our race will not self destruct with a nuclear war, but will simply fade away as the result of immature, wicked and short sighted strategies.
T.S.Eliot summed it up in his poem Hollow Men – This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper.
I agree with all your conclusions save one. The old people today many of whom are younger than I) are only selectively conservative. They grew up in the Sixties, after all.
We do not know the details of God’s Plan for redoing Mankind. We believe He will destroy much of the Earth by fire as He did with water in Noah’s time. We do not know when He will execute His Plan. But . . . several countries have nuclear bombs that, if most are used at one time, could burn the Earth. Wars happen. Small conflicts can grow into large wars. Hopefully not in the next 12 months.
Less than 150 years ago we had less than 1 billion people on Earth. Given 2 world wars, disease, famine, economic depressions, genocides, birth control, abortions, etc. we now have 8 billion people on Earth. Technology has exploded into many advantages and ability to control people most everywhere. China seems about ready to replace America as the world’s most capable superpower. Iran is intent in making Islam the number religion in the world, by force if necessary. Too many Christians, Catholics too, are giving up the sincere practice of their Faith.
I do not know the future, but it seems more likely that we will go down, not with T S Eliot whimper, but with affluent naive surprize when it all suddenly falls apart and too many in the ‘successful world’ will not work cooperatively to overcome it all.