In the undergrad course I teach "Environment and Society" one of the important environmental issues we take in class is human population growth. And no one can take stock of the issue without bumping into Thomas Robert Malthus and his theory on population. Malthus was an Anglican country parson who wrote one of the most influential works in science "An Essay on the Principle of Population". This essay influenced Darwin and Wallace at a time they were formulating their evolutionary theory. Malthus being a parish priest was able to create his theory from christening, marriage and funeral records. What better place to be a demographer! Malthus' essay has three important concepts. Some environmental science textbooks call these as "prophecies" while some call it "predictions". For the sake of scientific objectivity, I prefer the latter term. The predictions are 1) Population will increase exponentially as long as their is enough food (Malthus ini...
"It is surely harmful to souls to make it a heresy to believe what is proved" - Galileo